High-end open source data acquisition instruments and equipment

The following is an English summary of the above article:Company Overview- Hefei Zhongke Caixiang Technology Co., Ltd. was founded in 2021 by Associate Professor Cao Ping and Professor An Qi from the State Key Laboratory of Particle Detection and Electronics at the University of Science and Technology of China, in collaboration with the Institute of Advanced Technology. It is one of the first batch of enterprises for the empowerment reform of scientific and technological achievements at the university. - The company focuses on core technologies such as fast electronics and modular instruments, meeting the common needs for precise signal acquisition in various fields such as the electronic information industry, test and measurement, industrial automation, nuclear science and technology, marine environment, and resources. It provides the most advanced high-end data acquisition instruments, equipment, products, services, and complete solutions to help customers in different fields overcome the challenges in data acquisition and promote their continuous innovation. - The team, in collaboration with China Oilfield Services Limited, successfully developed China's first new generation of high-precision deep-water oil and gas seismic exploration data acquisition equipment and achieved industrialization. This has raised China's marine geophysical acquisition equipment technology to an international advanced level, with some key performance leading internationally. It has served the national industrial chain supply security. At the same time, the modular signal acquisition instruments developed by the team have achieved successful applications in multiple fields such as nuclear and particle physics large-scale scientific facilities, neutron psics, lidar, test and measurement, and have received unanimous praise.

Technologies and Achievements of Empowerment Projects

1. High-Precision Deep-Water Oil and Gas Seismic Exploration Data Acquisition Equipment    - China's marine oil and gas towing cable equipment has long relied on imports, posing a serious threat to national energy security and urgently needing a breakthrough.    - The team has developed and applied the methods and technologies related to signal acquisition, precise time measurement, system synchronization, and data readout in the field of nuclear and particle physics experiments to address the critical core technologies urgently needed for national marine oil and gas exploration. They have made systematic and creative work in the data acquisition system architecture, ultra-large-scale clock precise synchronization, high-performance data acquisition and long-distance transmission, and large-capacity data real-time readout, establishing a complete research and development system for the core equipment of large-scale marine towing cable data acquisition.    - Based on participating in the development of oil-filled liquid cable equipment, the team has overcome multiple key technical challenges such as ultra-long-distance integrated precise acquisition and transmission, large-coverage multi-cable global precise synchronization, scalable real-time readout of massive data, and high-reliability underwater cable operation support. They have successfully developed China's first new generation of high-precision deep-water oil and gas seismic exploration data acquisition core equipment with a solid cable architecture. This set of equipment can support a maximum cable length of 15 kilometers, a maximum sampling rate of 4kSPS, and a minimum channel spacing of 3.125 meters. It possesses the advantages of high-density acquisition, wide coverage, ultra-long cables, and reliable offshore operations. Its overall performance reaches the international advanced level, and some key performances are internationally leading.    - This achievement has broken through international technical restrictions and price blockades, making China the third country in the world to fully master the complete set of marine towing cable equipment technology. It has directly promoted the solution to a long-standing key bottleneck problem that has restricted the development of China's marine oil and gas geophysical exploration. Currently, this equipment achievement has been selected for the 70th anniversary innovation achievement exhibition of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, becoming a strategic development equipment for China National Offshore Oil Corporation, and has been selected as the first set of major technical equipment in the national energy field in 2021. It has also completed the installation on two large-scale marine geophysical survey ships, with significant social and economic benefits.

2. High-End Modular Data Acquisition Instruments    - The market for standardized and modular nuclear instruments and high-end test and measurement instruments in China is monopolized by foreign countries. The team has achieved results in the field of modular instruments.    - The team's achievements include products such as the signal processing series (data acquisition module, analog signal conditioning module, precise time measurement module), the timing and synchronous trigger series (clock fan-out module, precise timing synchronization module, trigger synchronous fan-out module), and the generalized data readout host. Based on the open-source modular instrument technology, they have developed ultra-high-speed multi-channel digitizers, time measuring instruments, and other high-end instruments. These instruments can adapt to the fast capture and measurement of the output signals of ultra-fast response detectors, with a maximum acquisition capability of 64 channels per readout chassis, a sampling rate of up to 10GSPS/6.4GSPS/3.2GSPS/1GSPS, a vertical resolution of 12 bits, an analog bandwidth of up to 2GHz, a multi-channel synchronization performance better than 10ps (RMS), and support single, continuous, and automatic acquisition modes, flexible trigger mechanisms and digital trigger algorithms for pre-trigger or post-trigger, support for optical fiber data readout interfaces with a data rate of no less than 10Gbps, support for multi-chassis synchronization expansion and timing capabilities, and software support for waveform display, processing, and storage, with a data storage speed of 4GB/s. The overall performance of the equipment reaches the international advanced level of similar products.

Application Scenarios

1. Deep-Water Oil and Gas Seismic Exploration Data Acquisition    - With the steady development of China's economy, the demand for energy is constantly rising, and the rapid development of the economy requires huge energy consumption as support. In recent years, China's dependence on foreign oil and natural gas has been increasing, and the risk of energy security has been rising, threatening national security. Marine oil and gas resources account for about 47% and 50% of the global total, and the proven global marine oil reserves are about 54 billion tons. The degree of exploration is much lower than that on land, with great potential, bearing the hope of the world's future oil.    - China's offshore oil and gas resources are rich and an important production base and exploration area for petroleum and natural gas, but they are unevenly distributed, and the degree of exploration of offshore oil and gas resources is relatively low. The average degree of exploration of petroleum resources is 22%, and the basins with a relatively high degree of exploration are the Bohai Bay (sea area) (35%), Beibu Gulf (16%), and Pearl River Mouth (14%); the average degree of exploration of natural gas resources is 7%, of which the Bohai Sea accounts for 26%, the Pearl River Mouth 6%, and the East China Sea, Qiongdongnan, and Yinggehai only have an average of 5%. China's central and southern South China Sea is rich in oil and gas resources, and the potential of undiscovered oil and gas resources is huge, with promising exploration prospects in the future. There are still many basins that have not been substantially explored and developed, making it a potential area for future oil and gas exploration and development. In general, China has a sustainable resource base, and the growth of oil reserves is in the early stage of the peak period, while the growth of natural gas reserves is still in the early stage. The potential for reserve growth in major offshore basins in the future is still great.    - Seismic exploration is the most effective and widely used method to solve oil and gas exploration problems. With the increase in the demand for oil and gas, offshore oil and gas exploration is advancing towards deep-water complex oil and gas reservoirs. In the face of these complex reservoirs, it is necessary to improve the existing technical solutions. Therefore, offshore seismic acquisition technology must develop towards broadband, wide azimuth, small bin, and high-density acquisition technology. However, all of China's large-scale offshore oil and gas geophysical exploration equipment relies on imports, with an annual purchase of up to several billion yuan. Foreign countries have imposed restrictions on China's equipment in terms of sinking depth (<30m) and channel spacing (≥12.5m) and production operation competitiveness, which has become a "bottleneck" technology that has long restricted the development of China's oil and gas exploration capabilities, seriously threatening national energy security and the supply chain security.    - China's offshore remaining oil and gas resources are still relatively abundant, and there is still great exploration potential. China urgently needs to strengthen exploration and development to ensure domestic resource supply. To firmly hold the energy rice bowl in our own hands, we first need to firmly hold high-end equipment in our own hands. China's marine oil and gas geophysical exploration industry has a huge demand for high-end marine resources and environmental exploration equipment. In addition, scientific expeditions, geological surveys, engineering surveys, natural disaster early warnings, coastline monitoring, seabed observations, oilfield monitoring, military underwater acoustic intelligence, and many other fields also have a huge demand for such equipment, with an extremely broad application prospect and market space, and the global market size exceeds 5 billion US dollars.

2. High-Energy Ray Detection Data Acquisition    - People have discovered that natural substances composed of unstable atomic nuclei can spontaneously transform into stable atomic nuclei, usually accompanied by the emission of charged particles and gamma rays during this process, which is also called radiation, and is the result of spontaneous transitions of atomic nuclei. Nuclear radiation is a form of energy propagation in the form of photons and particle beams, and nuclear radiation involves various types of radiation generated by atomic nuclei, including alpha particles, beta particles, gamma photons, and neutrons, collectively referred to as high-energy rays.

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