Multi-channel Synchronization for Picosecond Time-tagging System

Multichannel Event Timing (ET) systems are scientific instruments digitally processing real-time information from multiple sensors. An experimental study was carried out to investigate the synchronization method of five event timers. Testing is performed on a channel-by-channel basis for events registered separately by each timer channel. The average value of RMSE for each timer was computed on the stationary portion, shown on the graphs of each timer from 35000 seconds to the completion of the measurements. The proposed five independent channel synchronization approach analysis is experimentally validated, and the obtained average cross-channel RMSE is around 8ps. The temperature stability has not been examined and evaluated, but the observed timescale drift indirectly evidences that thermal compensation approaches should be applied. The experimental studies on the proposed synchronization method will continue to investigate thermal stability and optimize the timer design for 3 ps RMSE precision obtainable.