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A Very Low Power , Highly Integrated Multichannel Scaler

Multichannel Scaler (MCS) electronics are often used in lidar-based photon counting applications. The NASA SBIR Phase-I effort resulted in a highly integrated, low power, USB-based MCS hardware prototype and Windows-based software. The Phase-II project focused on expanding the Phase-I MCS development in creating a complete flexible lidar data acquisition “system-on-a-card." Key motivations in the design of the card were low power, compact form factor, and flexibility for use across multiple projects including embedded and PC-based systems. Many lidar-based photon counting systems use similar components and are made up of numerous circuit cards. The Phase-II effort consolidated many of the functions common to these projects into a single piece of electronics thereby increasing system reliability and reducing system power, mass, and complexity. Both the Phase-I and Phase-II deliverables have been well received by the NASA and science communities worldwide. The Phase-III effort funded by ESTO focuses on the migration of the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) data system to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform such as the Global Hawk. Capabilities such as real-time uplink commanding and quick-look data downlink and analysis will demonstrate new inflight functionality to enhance data collection. The current efforts provide another stepping stone in the development of a compact space-based photon counting lidar data system.