Research of a long distance clock distribution system

Ultrahigh-energy neutrinos with energies in excess of 100 PeV from the GZK effect will be studied using a new detector at the South Pole called the Askaryan Radio Array (ARA). The radiofrequency emission which occurs when these particles interact in the glacial ice is detected by an array of antennas spread out over an enormous area, over 100 km2 and embedded in the ice at depths of 200 m to increase sensitivity. Signals from the antennas are digitized by specialized electronics and must be time synchronized with accuracies of order 50 ps or less for event reconstruction to function properly. A system has been proposed which digitizes the impulse waveforms in situ in the ice and sends the data to the surface using high-speed serial links. This requires distribution of a low-jitter clock to each hole but has substantial advantages in cost and power which drive our development effort to realize this technology. Last year we implemented a first version of a long distance clock synchronization system using electrical signaling over CAT5. This year we have updated our solution to optical fiber using high speed transceiver blocks in Spartan 6 FPGAs. The master clock is embedded into the data stream and distributed to the various holes where a phase-locked derivative is recovered. In this way, we have implemented a 1.25 Gbps data link over a bi-directional communication system fulfilling the requirements of the project. This note describes our efforts on the latter solution: technical details as well as methods of maintaining fixed phase difference between two clocks after power cycle and reset.