FPGA based detector of electron modulations at MHz frequencies

Modulated energetic electrons have been observed in space plasmas, bunched up to frequencies of several MHz, due to the phenomenon of wave–particle interactions. The technique that has been the mainstay of on-board bunching detection has so far been implemented using complex circuitry, due to the high processing speed required. In this work, a novel approach to the Buncher technique has been developed, and has been implemented in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Improvements including much higher sampling and processing speeds have been achieved, as well as a vast increase in the number of channels that can be processed simultaneously, suggesting that the FPGA technology may be much better suited as the implementation platform compared to microprocessors. As a case study, we have used the Sussex CORrelating Electron Spectrograph (CORES), a multi-channel particle correlator set for launch to the International Space Station in late 2010.