Holodrive
The ITNA Holodrive is a high-quality driver and optogalvanic signal amplifier for hollow cathode lamps.
It features high efficiency and low noise thanks to a heavily filtered on-board switch-mode converter that provides a clean high-voltage rail which is then used to power the lamp through a precision constant-current sink. The optogalvanic signal is then available at the lamp's cathode with superior signal to noise ratio. It is amplified by the Holodrive and presented as low-impedance AC-coupled differential output that can be fed to a lock-in amplifier.
Its primary application is precise and cost-effective absolute laser wavelength tuning, in combination with Kirdy and Soundlocker.
Preliminary specifications:
- 12Vdc input on barrel jack connector.
- Compatible with hollow cathode lamps on octal socket.
- Lamp ignition voltage 200V-300V (set by trimmer).
- Lamp running voltage 130V-250V (set by trimmer).
- Lamp current 5mA-15mA (set by trimmer).
- Optogalvanic gain 10x-100x (set by trimmer).
- Optogalvanic output on differential mini-XLR.
- Bandwidth 200Hz-10kHz.
- Can drive traditional lock-in amplifiers, or XLR audio inputs directly for flexible and cost-effective software-defined solutions using an audio interface.
- Excellent SNR makes many optogalvanic signals visible on oscilloscope directly, without further signal processing.
- Low cost.