Analog read-out

Analog signals are often used to measure the state of the microscope in parallel to an experiment. For instance, laser power meters allow monitoring the real-time laser power on the microscope by generating an analog signal. Likewise, they can be used to maintain the focus of the microscope, while being measured on a computer for visual feedback.

MicroFPGA has eight analog read-out pins. Using the Au\Au+ FPGA, you can read-out the measured voltage scaled to 0-65535 on each channel. The FPGA uses Zynq-7000 SoC XADC Dual 12-Bit 1 MSPS Analog-to-Digital Converter from Xilinx. The analog inputs are only available with the Au/Au+ FPGA.

Properties
Number of channels	8
Input range	0-1 V
Maximum voltage tolerance	1.8 V
Output range	0-65535

The ADC can be damaged if the voltage input is higher than 1.8 V, make sure to restrain the voltage within the 0-1 V range. The ACB board allows scaling analog voltages from 0-10 V or 0-5 V to 0-1 V, while also limiting the maximum voltage to 1.6 V. We therefore advise using such a board with MicroFPGA.