LSI Correlator™
Digital correlator suitable for PCS techniques such as dynamic light scattering, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, diffusing wave spectroscopy, diffusive optical tomography.
The LSI Correlator™ is a digital correlator designed for real-time computation of auto- and cross-correlations as well as photon counting of pulse streams arising from dynamic light scattering (DLS), diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS), diffuse coherence spectroscopy (DCS) and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) experiments. This advanced hardware correlator implements both the multiple-tau (multi-tau) and linear-tau digital correlation algorithms which allow spanning the largest lag-time range nowadays available. This makes our correlator suitable for particle sizing of both fast and slow dynamics samples. Our device is specially designed to offer the greatest flexibility, robustness, reliability, and platform portability. Its powerful hardware architecture makes the LSI Correlator a stand-alone device, suitable for further customization.
Main Features
Multi-tau Auto- and Cross-Correlation: 16/8 multi-tau correlation scheme, covering lag-time axis spanning from 12.5 ns up to 3436 s by means of 322 channels, hence covering a time range of 13 orders of magnitude.
Programmable fastest lag-time: The LSI Correlator offers the possibility to choose the fastest lag-time of the averaged multi-tau correlation functions in order to reduce the statistical noise for signals that don’t need the fastest channels. Initial selectable lags are: 12.5 ns, 200 ns, 400 ns, 800 ns, 3200 ns.
Normalization: Both symmetric and compensated normalization are selectable. 296 monitor channels are available upon 322 total channels.
APIs: The LSI Correlator can be accessed through application programming interface (API) available for Matlab, Labview, and Python.
Optional customization: Java, C, C++, C#, VB, etc.
Communication: The LSI correlator transmits via USB 2.0 and Gigabit Ethernet for remote usage.
Supported Operating Systems: Windows and Linux.
Software: The device is accompanied by a user-friendly software for device control and advanced data-treatment when used as DLS correlator (CONTIN, Cumulant Analysis, Exponential Fitting).
Linear Correlator Software: Starting at 0.4 µs to 12.5 µs sampling time with programmable lag time.
Detector Overload Protection: Our digital correlator implements a fast gating output that is triggered when the instantaneous count rate exceeds a user-programmable threshold. This functionality is active even when not measuring and helps to protect expensive detectors from unexpected overloads.
Synchronization Clock Output: An output clock is available in case the user wants to synchronize the correlation function computation with the operation of other hardware parts in their setup.
Stable Operation: The LSI Correlator comes with an external power supply for a perfectly stable and reliable operation. It is able to recover from communication errors (e.g. host computer crashes, network outages, etc.) without the need to be reset.
Upgradable Firmware: The firmware of the LSI Correlator can be upgraded in a few minutes by the user. This allows the end user to stay up-to-date with the latest features developed by the LS Instruments team.
Maximum Count Rate: 20 Mcps over 52 ms integration interval.
Standard count trace sampling time: ~ 52 ms
Size: The correlator is housed in a protective aluminum housing of 120 x 120 x 53.60 mm.