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A peak hold energy readout circuit for use with pyroelectric laser energy monitors

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1975 J. Phys. E: Sci. Instrum. 8 261

(http://iopscience.iop.org/0022-3735/8/4/005)

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Apparatus and techniques
4 Conclusions
A pneumatic circuit which is somewhat analogous to an
electronic astable multivibrator has been described. Its output
consists of the reciprocating motion of two piston actuators
whose extension intervals ATc and ~ T Dperiod , T and duty
ratio d may be varied over quite wide limits. The prototype
unit is compact, quiet and dependable. It consumes little
pneumatic power and exhibits remarkable cycle stability.
References
Hayes W F and Edwards E P 1974 Laboratory Technical
Report LTR-CS-127, Division of Mechanical Engineering,
National Research Council of Canada
Wood G H, Dunn A F and Nadon L A 1974 IEEE Trans.
Instrum. Meas. IM-23 275-8
Journal of Physics E: Scientific Instruments 1975 Volume 8
Printed in Great Britain 0 1975
A peak hold energy readout
circuit for use with pyroelectric
laser energy monitors
H J Baker
Physics Department, Schuster Laboratory, University of
Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL
Received 21 November 1974
Abstract A reliable and inexpensive circuit is described
which allows the peak voltage produced by a Gen-Tec
pulsed laser energy detector to be accurately held, allowing
energy measurements to be conveniently made by readings
from a moving coil meter. The circuit has excellent linearity
and a low voltage drift in the hold position, and is suitable
for voltage peak hold applications in general.
Pulsed laser energy detectors utilizing the pyroelectric effect
(e.g. Gen-Tec ED100, EC200, ED500) provide a convenient
and simple method of laser energy measurement. Such detectors
produce an electrical pulse with a peak voltage closely propor-
tional to incident laser energy when connected to a measuring
circuit with an input impedance of 1 MQ or more. Since the
electrical pulse reaches its peak voltage in a time typically of
06-3 ms, oscilloscope measurements are usually used to
determine the laser energy. In this note, a reliable and inexpen-
sive peak hold circuit is described which captures and accur-
ately holds the peak voltage, allowing more convenient laser
energy readings to be made from a moving coil meter. The
circuit includes a feature which gives a long hold time whilst
still allowing fast acquisition of the peak voltage.
The storage capacitor C in figure 1 is charged to the voltage
at the noninverting terminal of amplifier A1 by voltage
follower action, as the input voltage from the pyroelectric
detector swings positive. After passing through the peak
voltage, the diodes DI and D2 prevent discharge of the
capacitor and the peak voltage is held. Amplifier A2 allows
measurement of the capacitor voltage by the meter MI, and
provides variable levels of gain according to the setting of
switch SWZ.After measurement of the laser energy, the circuit
is reset to zero by momentary closure of switch SW1. To ensure
that the capacitor voltage does not decay significantly in the
*
Input
+15V
f RVI
447 k
I ‘la 470 k
* ,-
Figure 1 Circuit diagram. AI, A2 are FET MOPA, Di, D2
are 1N914
time taken to make a reading of the meter, mr-input opera-
tional amplifiers and a low leakage plastic film capacitor are
required. Even with these precautions, the voltage decay rate
on the most sensitive scale ( x 100 gain) is much too high. An
obvious solution would be to increase the storage capacitor
size, but this causes an increase in the acquisition time (time
for the capacitor to charge to the input voltage) and inaccuracy
due to overshoot in the input voltage follower. An alternative
is to reduce the source of leakage causing the decay, which is
predominantly the reverse leakage current of the diode in the
follower feedback loop. In the circuit in figure 1, feedback
from the output amplifier through resistor R2 is used to
‘bootstrap’ diode D1, i.e. reduce the voltage across it to zero
during the hold period, removing the reverse leakage. This
method is particularly effective, reducing capacitor voltage
drift from 2 to 0.06 mV s-1.
The accuracy obtainable in a circuit of this type is limited by
overshoot in the input voltage follower, since the peak of the
overshoot is held rather than the peak of the signal. Resistor
RI in series with the storage capacitor, is used to prevent over-
shoot, and its effectiveness is shown by the excellent measured
linearity of the circuit using pulse peak voltages from less than
1 mV to more than 10 V and with pulse risetimes as short as
0-5 ps.
As pulsed lasers usually generate large amounts of electrical
interference, the circuit is constructed inside a well screened
metal box and is powered by dry batteries. When connected to
the pyroelectric detector by a short coaxial cable, no problem
has been encountered with pickup of interference, even on the
most sensitive scale.
Initial setting up of the circuit involves balancing the
amplifier offset voltages. The reading on the output meter is
zeroed, using the most sensitive gain setting on SW2, by first
adjusting RV2 with reset switch SW1 closed and then adjusting
RV1 and SWl open. Calibration for a particular detector is
carried out by momentary connection of the input to a voltage
source of value equivalent to the full scale energy reading
required, and adjusting RV3 to obtain full scale deflection of
261
Apparatus and techniques
the meter. The calibration voltage is obtained from a chart The object of forming welds between copper and constantan
provided with each detector by the manufacturers. Our was to produce a flat thin thermocouple which could be built
particular Gen-Tec ED500 detector has a sensitivity of 2 V J-1 into a stack of small dimensions.
with a 2 M O load resistance, and a calibration pulse of 20 V is
used to give a full scale reading of 10 J. The resistor values 2 Experimental
shown in figure 1 then give ranges of 0.1,0.3,1,3 and 10 J full The pressure welding tool used in the work was commercially
scale. For calibration with the smaller detectors in the Gen-Tec available and designed for use with dies which allowed for a
range, the attenuation provided by the input resistors may total metal thickness before welding of 0.35 mm. One of the
need modification to allow the energy scales to fit sensibly into two dies of 22 mm diameter is shown in figure 1. The second
the 1,3, 10 sequence of the output amplifier. When calibrated
for the ED500 detector, energy readings are held to an
accuracy of 1 % for approximately 10 s on the 100 mJ scale,
rising to several minutes on the higher energy scales.
Whilst developed specifically for use as a laser energy meter,
the performance of the circuit is sufficiently good for it to find
general application in scientific instrumentation. Particular
features are good linearity, long hold times and relatively fast
acquisition time (- 10 ps for a 1 V pulse).
Journal of Physics E: Scientific Instruments 1975 Volume 8
Printed in Great Britain 0 1975

Cold pressure welded copper-

con stanta n therm ocou p les
R Vipond
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The City
University, London EClV 4PB
Received I I November 1974, in final form 27 January 1975
Abstract Cold pressure welding has been used to produce
a lap junction between 0.15 mm thick strips of copper and
constantan which had been plated with 2 pm of nickel.
The junction thickness after welding was 0.10 mm, and
after further cold rolling to 0.06 mm a thermocouple
performance within the requirements of BS 1041 (1966) was
obtained.
1 Introduction
Cold pressure welding can be used to form a junction between
two ductile metals by the application of pressure at ambient
temperature. The process is used for butt welding wires or lap
welding thin sections of metals such as copper or aluminium in
applications where low electrical resistance junctions are
required. A survey of pressure welding (Rollason 1959) gives
an account of some of the factors involved.
Several other workers have proposed theories of the events
which take place in pressure welding (Vaidyanath et al. 1959,
Holmes 1959, Baranov 1963t, Agers and Singer 1964).
Organic films on the surfaces to be welded will stop the
necessary metal-metal interatomic bonding. Oxide films are
rarely troublesome if the film is brittle and formed on a ductile
base (e.g. AI208 on AI) since during metal deformation under
the welding pressure, film rupture will expose clean reactive
metal which is ideal for welding. Baranov (1963) refers to the
possibility of electroplating a thin metal layer onto the surfaces
to be joined as an effective means of ensuring welding,
however no applications of this method have been reported.
t Translation from Russian by National Lending Library.
262
Figure 1 One of the two cold pressure welding dies
(diameter, 22 mm)
die is such that its protrusion tips are coincident with those of
the die shown as the dies close. The welding pressure to cause
plastic flow necessary for welding is estimated at 7.3 N mm-2
and is derived from a 0.62 N mm-2 dry compressed air supply.
The cleaning of the samples of annealed high conductivity
grade copper (99.99 %) and constantan (45 % Ni-55 % Cu)in
the form of 0.15 mm thick strips was by electrolytic degreasing
in 10% NaOH, washing in distilled water and then alcohol,
and drying in warm air. This was immediately followed by the
recommended industrial practice of wire brushing. In this
work, similarly degreased 150 mm diameter rotary brushes
with wires of 0.3 mm at a speed of 3000 revolutions/min were
used. The sample was stuck to a flat plate with double sided
adhesive tape to facilitate handling for the 15 s brushing.
Sample strips 12 mm wide and 50 mm long of both metals
were nickel plated at 5 A dm-2 for 2 min to give a 2 pm
deposit from a Watts type bath of p H 4 at 55°C (International
Finishing Industries Manual 1974.)
Pairs of the plated metals were welded, and from each pair
one weld junction was cut as illustrated in figure 2. The form of
Figure 2 Configuration of the welded strips: (a) a plan
view showing the cut to produce one thermocouple
junction; (b) the thickness form of the welded strips