My second EE job, the Lawrence Livermore Lab, Final Projects

I was employed at LLNL for over 45 years in the Electronics Department, working for several different departments. There were many projects over the years and I am reporting on a small number of them. Most projects were successful but some were not, such as the Acoustic Spectrometer described below. Almost all of my LLNL projects were unclassified. Only a few projects were classified and I am not including those projects in my blog. There were a few projects that were somewhat sensitive and those projects are also not included. The only projects that I am including are those that have been reported in the open literature such as unclassified papers in symposiums or conferences or in unclassified patents that are available in the Internet. I am adding info on our WATS and JBREWS projects. I had thought that they were classified or possibly sensitive but now I see that there is information on the web.

Global Security Department
I left the Laser Electronics Department and the AVLIS Program in June 1990, feeling that I had done a lot of useful work including some that had led to patents such as the Wavelength Meter and the Calorimetric Laser Power Meter. But it was time for a change of scenery and thankfully David W. Myers took me on in the Z-Division electronics group for my "new career." I had worked with Myers in the AVLIS Program, so we knew each other well. Z-Division later became part of the Global Security Department. One of the great things about LLNL is that one could move to a new department and new Electronics Division and have a new career. It was like leaving for a new company, so to speak, without having to leave the Lab.

INSENS
One of my first projects in my new Z-Division job was working for David A. Fuess and David Myers on the INSENS Project. David A. Fuess was the Group Leader of the Sensor Applications Group of the Global Security Department and David W. Myers was my supervisor and Group Leader of the Electronics Sensor Applications Group. Fuess was a Computer Scientist at LLNL with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics from U.C. Berkeley. More than a Computer Scientist, Fuess was a very inventive scientist/engineer, developing unattended ground sensor systems such as the Modular Intelligent Sensor System, a modular microprocessor-based data acquisition and communication system. Fuess published an article in an Institute for Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) journal in June 1993 of his Modular Intelligent Sensor System. He then proposed to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) that we build an unattended ground sensor system for the U.S. Border Patrol agency as an upgrade to their existing detection and communication system for the detection of persons and vehicles crossing the borders from Canada or Mexico. The INS, now the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), funded the system development and Fuess named the system INSENS. Following Fuess' architectural design, we developed the INSENS system. Our INSENS system was Radio Frequency (RF) compatible with the existing Border Patrol system, communicating in the same frequency and using the same Frequency-Shift-Keying (FSK) digital data format as their existing system but providing a simpler modular and expandable unattended ground sensor and communication system. Myers became the Project Engineer with overall responsibility for the system development. Fuess, Myers, David M. Benzel, Mechanical Engineer Robert Bachmeier, Lead EE Technician Richard A. Kimble and myself were the INSENS development team. Our designer/draftsman was Patrick G. Gardner. Benzel, who was our radio expert, became responsible for the radio transmitters and receivers and I became responsible for the probes (or sensors) and analog interfaces for the sensors. We wrote a paper titled INSENS system design and submitted it to the Tactical Technologies and Wide Area Surveillance International Symposium in November, 1993. INSENS had three subsystems: a General Sensor System, a Repeater System and a Portable Monitor handheld receiver and display system. The General Sensor System was the main signal acquisition, control and communication system with probes, signal processing and a radio communication unit. It consisted of a Control Processor, a Signal Processing Module, a Radio Transmitter module and a motherboard/backplane, The Repeater System consisted of a Control Processor, a Radio Receiver module, a Radio Transmitter module, the motherboard/backplane. Each of the modules included a Philips/Signetics 80CL410 microcontroller that operated with a 12MHz clock. The modules communicated by way of the I²C bus to communicate data and commands between the boards. The General Sensor System was packaged in a sealed water-tight enclosure, suitable for burial in the ground. It was powered by an External Power Source comprising a rechargeable sealed-lead-acid battery pack, also in a sealed enclosure. The Portable Monitor System was a handheld unit with an LCD screen, the Control Processor, the Radio Receiver module, a four-button control pad, knobs for the radio receiver squelch and volume control, and a four-cell AA NiCad battery pack. Besides displaying the detection event data on the LCD screen, the event data was output from a RJ-11 connector for communication to the Border Patrol

INSENS System, 1993.

Computer. Fuess was the architect of the system and the software developer. I was responsible for the probes and the analog circuitry for the probes. I selected the Passive Infrared Probe from Eltec Instruments and the Seismic Probe, a geophone from a company which is now longeo.com. Also I designed the very-low-power high-sensitivity fluxgate Directional Magnetometer after a U.S. Navy design by Robert E. Brown and I was responsible for designing the battery pack charging system. I also worked on various aspects of the Portable Monitor. Benzel designed the Radio Receiver and Transmitter Modules at the same frequency and digital data format as the existing Border Patrol system. We frequently met with Border Patrol technical agents to fine-tune the system design. It was truly a team development project and we worked together very well, the Border Patrol agents and all six of us at LLNL. Following successful tests of the prototype INSENS system at LLNL, we contracted with the U.S. Navy to manufacture the first few systems that were delivered to the Border Patrol for their field testing. Unfortunately INS and Border Patrol funding issues stalled and halted deployment of our system.



HIPROTECT
Following our INSENS Project, Fuess contacted the U.S. Army and Dr. Erv Taylor of the Anthropology Department, University of California, Riverside regarding a site protection system for the Yuchi-Town site along the Chattahoochee River on the western edge of the Fort Benning military base. Dr. Taylor was the head of the Preservation Science and Technology Unit at U.C. Riverside. I was to work with U.C. Riverside's Dr. Joan Schneider to design, develop and install the HIPROTECT system at the Yuchi-Town Site. The site was the home of a Creek Indian tribe for some years before their relocation to an Indian Reservation in Oklahoma in the 1830's according to a brief Yuchi history.

Yuchi Town, painting by Martin Pate (1990) of the 18th-century village.

Fuess selected me to be the Project Engineer for the our system which Fuess dubbed HIPROTECT, for Human Intelligence Protection system. Charles W. Modlin, C.J. (Christopher) Frerking, Robert Guyton and I were the designer/developers of the system. Modlin was responsible for fabrication, Frerking responsible for the PC software, Guyton  was responsible for the freeze-frame video system and I was responsible for the sensors, the electronic design and the microcontroller software development. The HIPROTECT system consisted of the Sensor Units, the Site Monitoring Unit and the Multisite Monitoring System. We used the high-sensitivity fluxgate magnetometers that I had previously developed for the INSENS project and also geophone seismic. The system used the seismic and magnetic sensors to detect intruders to the

The HIPROTECT Sensors.

Left:The Yuchi-Town Site, Right: Dr. Joan Schneider and Ft. Benning Archeologist discussing sensor installation locations.

Yuchi-Town site and reported their intrusions by cellular telephone connection to the Multisite Monitoring System that would be installed at the Fort Benning air base. The Sensor Units are shown below, showing three of the two-axis fluxgate magnetometers wired to Sensor Units. Also shown is an Infrared sensor that was not deployed at the Yuchi-Town site as local critters would trigger the IR sensors, causing false alarms. The Sensor Units (the larger boxes in the photo) included a microcontroller and a 150kbit/s RF transmitter for communicating to the central (not shown) Site Monitoring Unit which would transmit alarm signals to the Multisite Monitoring System at the air base for alerting Fort Benning personnel of intrusions to the site. A video camera mounted high on an old Hunters Lookout would provide freeze-frame video pictures to the Site Monitoring Unit for transmission to the Multisite Monitoring System. Communication from the Site Monitoring Unit to the Multisite Monitoring System was by Cellular Telephone. An Infrared lamp illuminated the site for nighttime observation by the video camera. I worked with Dr. Joan Schneider of the U.C. Riverside Anthropology Department to install the HIPROTECT sensor system at the Yuchi-Town Site with assistance of the Ft. Benning Archaeologist.

Left: Dr. Schneider, Right: The Sensors Read for Implanting.

Frerking developed the PC software to receive the signals from the Site Monitoring Unit and display them on a map display on a video monitor. Also a monitor would display the freeze frame video images. A description of the HIPROTECT system was submitted to the Tactical Technologies and Wide Area Surveillance International Symposium in October 1993, Dr. Schneider and I installed the HIPROTECT system at Yuchi Town, working with the Fort Benning archaeologist.

Solid State (Infrared) Camera
Dave Fuess approached me in 1994 to develop an infrared camera as a possible detection and imaging sensor for the Modular Intelligent Sensor System, primarily to detect vehicles passing by on roadways. Fuess had suggested a linear array sensor from Eltec Instruments and I began developing the camera, using the Eltec AR170 pyroelectric infrared 32-element linear array, oriented vertically. I used a 2" diameter F-1 Germanium lens to image onto the sensor, a Dallas Semiconductor 8031-type microcontroller with battery-backed RAM for the program and data storage, an Analog-To-Digital Converter (ADC) and serial RS232 communication to a PC. Mechanical Engineer Robert Bachmeier designed the housing for the camera. The camera would detect a passing vehicle of person and then acquire up to 1875 32-element samples from the ADC at 400 samples/sec for a maximum of 60,000 data points but generally only 250 samples were required to image a vehicle passing by the camera at 30 MPH.To speed up the data communication of the images, I employed an edge-detection scheme and Run-Length Encoding for data compression that resulted in a 30:1 to 240:1 compression of the digital data. The camera quite successfully could detect a passing vehicle or person, acquire the signals from the AR170 sensor, do the edge detection and data compression. Below are images of a vehicle passing by the camera.

Raw data acquired from Solid State Camera.

Difference processed image.

Edge detected image, suitable for Run-Length Encoding data compression.

Acoustic Spectrometer
I got involved in the Acoustic Spectrometer project in 1996, working with the Principal Investigator Sang Sheem, later becoming the PI when Sheem left the project. The project was funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, now DARPA) and the Department of Energy to produce an acoustic sensor that could distinguish sound frequencies primarily for vehicle detection and discrimination. Early work had involved the use of a fiber optic device. We recognized that the fiber optic device was not sensitive enough and when I joined the project, I began developing a 3" diameter micromachined array with 64 acoustically resonant tines on a silicon wafer in order to produce a more sensitive acoustic sensor. We originally had hoped to use optical interferometry to detect the motion of each individual tine on the array but found that the tines would sag or be warped and concluded that the interferometry technique was unworkable. Consequently we changed to a capacitive pickup design, using a 40 kHz signal to the silicon array and detecting the signals from the individual tines with a synchronous detector circuit, our Capacitive Tine Amplitude Readout (CTAR) design. Initial tests with the a first-cut silicon array were disappointing with poor sensitivity and viscous (air) coupling between adjacent tines. Recognizing the problem of viscous coupling between the tines, I redesigned the array with large differences in the tine length of adjacent tines. We assembled a new CTAR module and began tests which showed very promising results but unfortunately ARPA canceled the project and the tests were not completed. Although the Acoustic Spectrometer project was unsuccessful, it was promising and employed very high technology, in particular the micromachined silicon array.

Acoustic Spectrometer Block Diagram.

WATS
The WATS project was concerned with detection and monitoring of nuclear devices that might be transported and placed in U.S. cities. Here's from an LLNL Science and Technology LLNL Science and Technology Counterterrorism article:

One particularly promising technology with anti-WMD-terrorism application is the Wide-Area Tracking System (WATS) for detecting and tracking a ground-delivered nuclear device. Another is the Joint Biological Remote Early Warning System (JBREWS) for alerting U.S. field troops of an attack with biological agents (Figure 1). Both systems consist of a network of sensors and communications links, with information continuously evaluated by unique data-fusion algorithms. The sensors can be permanently deployed at chosen locations or mounted in vans for deployment on demand to protect specific areas for specific situations or events.

Our WATS system was several suitcase-sized radiation detection systems with an Intel 386SX module and FreeWave 900 MHz Frequency Hopping Spread-Spectrum serial communication radios. David Fuess was our project leader and David Myers the Electronics Group Leader for the WATS project. I designed the electronic system and developed the software.

JBREWS
Rob Hills was the project leader for the Joint Biological Remote Early Warning System (JBREWS) systems. See the LLNL Science and Technology Review article. Our first-generation demonstration system was developed in conjunction with the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The LANL personnel developed the base station to receive our sensor data, analyze, display and record the data. The initial JBREWS systems included an Intel 386SX module and a FreeWave 900 MHz serial frequency-hopping spread-spectrum communication radio with a sensor to detect anthrax or anthrax surrogates and communicate back to a system via the FreeWave radios. Bruce Henderer was responsible for the sensor system to detect the Anthrax surrogate. We successfully demonstrated the initial JBREWS system in an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD), detecting anthrax surrogates at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah in May, 2000.

RadScout
I was between projects when David L. Weirup approached me to work on a portable gamma spectrometer system that became named RadScout. Mark S. Rowland conceived of RadScout and was the Principal Investigator on the project. I would work with Douglas Howard, an EE with whom I had enjoyed working on previous projects. Others on the project were James L. Wong for the spectrum analysis software and Jimmie L. Jessup for the mechanical design and fabrication of the prototype. Doug had already made a lot of progress on the system, designing the system architecture and selecting the Hymatic Stirling Cycle Cryogenic Cooler, the battery and charger and the Multichannel Analyzer (MCA) and microcontroller chips and a Compaq iPaq PDA. RadScout employed a High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector and a neutron detector. Doug worked with Jessup for the mechanical design and fabrication of the prototype, fine tuning the system with heat shields for maximum efficiency of the cryogenic cooling system. He wanted me to develop the MCA chip to iPaq software and what he called the Housekeeping software to talk to the Hymatic controller and to handle other system needs. I developed the Housekeeping code and also overall system management code on the iPaq using the Windows CE software. My iPaq code did the overall management and most importantly acquired the MCA and neutron data and displayed it on the LCD screen. James Wong would add his spectrum analysis code to the iPaq for identification of the radioactive isotopes, completing the project. RadScout was patented in 2004 by the Regents of the University of California and in 2003 was licensed to Ortec in 2004 who commercialized RadScout, producing their Micro-Detective system. A photo of the RadScout along with Ortec's Detective is below from an LLNL counterterrorism article on Hand-held Isotope Identification.

LLNL's RadScout hand held detector and analyzer.

RadScout along with Ortec's Detective.

Tailpulse Generator
For a time I was working on the project led by Zachary Koenig to provide support for Russians in the monitoring and assaying of the nuclear materials stored at the Mayak facility in the Ural Mountains. See the dtic.mil document concerning Arms Control and Nonproliferation Technologies. Part of the system we were recommending for the Mayak facility required some radioactive materials for testing and calibrating the system. However, we learned that it was nearly impossible to transport radioactive test samples to Russia and it became clear that there was a need for a device that could simulate various radioactive samples by mimicking the tailpulses from High Purity Germanium (HPGe) gamma detectors for various combinations of isotopes. Accordingly, I began work on developing a pulse generator that could simulate the pulses produced by an HPGe. Daniel J. Decman was the Global Security Group Leader. Daniel E. Archer, Bert Pohl, Gregory K. White and Stanley John Luke were also in the project. I learned of a method to produce an array of random variables from a gamma ray spectrum in an ACM article by Alistair J. Walker, "An Efficient Method For Generating Discrete Random Variables ..." Walker's article includes Fortran code which I recoded in C for a PC. For the spectra, Bert Pohl would use produce spectra for a combination of isotopes in containers with various geometries and my C code would take the gamma ray spectrum and produce the array of random variables which is then loaded into my Tailpulse Generator as described in John Luke's Description of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Synthetic Gamma Ray Source. Photos of the completed Tailpulse Generator are below, that I named RadSim.

 

RadSim, the Tailpulse Generator.

The spectra Pohl produced would look similar to that shown below from an Amptek article on Uranium and Plutonium spectra:

From http://www.amptek.com/uranium-and-plutonium-spectra/.

Because of the requirement for high processing speed, I chose to use a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip. The FPGA code is described in our patent application for Tailpulse signal generator. A block diagram of the overall system is shown below:

Block diagram of the overall system.

I patented the tailpulse generator in 2009 (http://techportal.eere.energy.gov/patent.do/ID=16675) and it was further reported by John Luke in 2010 in his report Description of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Synthetic Gamma Ray Source.


Smart Sampler 
A final project that Dave Weirup suggested to me was with Steven Hunter, on development of the Smart Sampler (SS). Charles R. Carrigan is the Principal Investigator on this project to develop a system to search for and detect underground nuclear explosions. See Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The Abstract from the article is shown below:

The development of a technically sound approach to detecting the subsurface release of noble gas radionuclides is a critical component of the on-site inspection (OSI) protocol under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. In this context, we are investigating a variety of technical challenges that have a significant bearing on policy development and technical guidance regarding the detection of noble gases and the creation of a technically justifiable OSI concept of operation. The work focuses on optimizing the ability to capture radioactive noble gases subject to the constraints of possible OSI scenarios. This focus results from recognizing the difficulty of detecting gas releases in geologic environments—a lesson we learned previously from the non-proliferation experiment (NPE). Most of our evaluations of a sampling or transport issue necessarily involve computer simulations. This is partly due to the lack of OSI-relevant field data, such as that provided by the NPE, and partly a result of the ability of computer-based models to test a range of geologic and atmospheric scenarios far beyond what could ever be studied by field experiments, making this approach very highly cost effective. We review some highlights of the transport and sampling issues we have investigated and complete the discussion of these issues with a description of a preliminary design for subsurface sampling that addresses some of the sampling challenges discussed here.

I worked with Hunter and others to develop the SS, shown below. The SS system included pumps, valves and sensors to pump from wells drilled to detect certain gases. the SS sensors included an SF6 detector, a RAD7 Radon sensor, a barometric pressure sensor and a relative humidity sensor. Carrigan, Hunter and Lindsey M. Skelton of Long Beach reported on the system in http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/star/190/, including the photos below. The lower photo shows Carrigan operating the the first test of the SS in Slovakia. From the report:

One element of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is the provision for an on site inspection (OSI). The purpose of an OSI is to monitor for the occurrence of an underground nuclear explosion (UNE) in violation of the treaty. Detection of certain rare radioactive noble gases transported to the surface can be an excellent indicator of a UNE. These gases can be very difficult to capture and require specialized sampling methods. This study aims to determine an algorithm that will increase the efficiency of the subsurface gas sampling technique being used to detect UNEs. Continuous sampling of subsurface gases was determined not to be as efficient as triggering the start of sampling by a barometric algorithm or by an algorithm using a percentage of the maximum soil-gas radon level. By using such algorithms to increase the concentration levels of the samples we collect, we also increase the probability of detecting a UNE during an OSI.

The Smart Sampler system.

My part of the project was to select and purchase the embedded computer system and develop the software to control the SS. I chose a WinSystems PC/104 Plus PPM-LX800 CPU board, their ADC and Serial I/O modules and their PPC3-G-6.5-359 LCD Panel PC module for the User Interface and display. For the software, I chose to use National Instruments LabWindows/CVI that provided user controls, analysis and real-time graphing. A screenshot is shown below.

Screenshot of Smart Sampler Control and Data Acquisition System.

Testing has been highly successful and work with the Smart Sampler continues.

I am deeply grateful to those in the Global Security Department and the Electronics Department for the many challenging, interesting and varied projects that they brought to me, particularly Dave Fuess, Dave Myers and Dave Weirup. Weirup kept me busy for several years on projects that ran the gamut of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), Programmable Logic Control (PLC), software development on various projects and also electromagnetic field analysis.

By the way, that's another of the paintings by my wife Heide Wang in the background of my photo. She's a terrifically talented watercolor painter, wonderful wife (as she puts up with me) and terrific cook plus being a wonderful NiNi to her grandkids.