Electronics

AcWaCo comprises two main electronic parts: Kernel, and Adapter which connects to a laser interferometer.

Kernel handles all the measurements made by AcWaCo. It is designed as a universal device which can be configured (using a graphical user interface) for any application of AcWaCo.

Adapter connects AcWaCo to a laser interferometer. A different Adapter is needed for each supported laser model because of differences in signal formats, mechanics, electrical connections etc. between lasers by different manufacturers.

AcWaCo's electronics repeat the following measurement sequence continuously.

  1. Read the position from the laser interferometer
  2. Measure the time elapsed while the sound waves propagated along the laser beam
  3. Read the environmental sensors
  4. Calculate the refractive index and compensation term
  5. Add the transient compensation term to the position reported by the laser interferometer