Front-end Electronic System Research Articles

Design of electronic system for 2D hard X-ray spectrum camera on EAST

This paper presents the construction of a electronic system for two-dimensional hard X-ray spectroscopic imaging using CZT(Cadmium Zinc Telluride, CdZnTe) detector on EAST(Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak), designed to measure the spatiotemporal distribution evolution of fast electrons in the energy range of 20 keV-700 keV. The system primarily consists of a two-dimensional array of CZT detector, an observation window, shielding components, front-end electronics system, and a data acquisition system. The two-dimensional array of detector is installed on the horizontal D window of EAST, with an observation range covering the plasma core region. The system achieves a temporal resolution of 2–16 ms and a spatial resolution of 10 cm. Data processing is carried out using FPGA-based (Field Programmable Gate Array) spectral recognition algorithms. Prior to the experiments on EAST, spectrum calibration is conducted using radioactive sources Eu152, Cs137, and Am251. In the 2023 EAST experiments, the system successfully measured the behavior of fast electrons generated under low hybrid discharge conditions, enabling spectrum measurements at different spatial locations within the plasma. Finally, the experimental results show that the system has a good performance.

SiPM-based camera for gamma-ray imaging air Cherenkov telescope

The current status of the equipment development for the new wide-angle gamma-ray imaging air Cherenkov telescope for TAIGA hybrid installation is presented. A front-end electronic and data acquisition system board based on the Zynq family Xilinx FPGA chips specially designed for this project have been produced and are being tested. A detailed description if presented for internal structure of the four main subsystems: four 8-channel 100 MHz ADCs, board’s control system, internal clock and synchronization system and the power supply system. Additionally, the current status of a small scale prototype telescope SIT consisting of 49 SiPM is presented. The telescope includes a digital camera for observing the stars and weather condition. The SIT-HiSCORE synchronization systems and the telemetry information collection had been tested.

System-level performance study and commissioning of TGC front-end electronics for Phase-2 upgrade of LHC-ATLAS

The Thin Gap Chamber (TGC) of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC are responsible to provide muons trigger segments in the endcap region at the hardware trigger stage. The front-end electronics system of the TGC will be upgraded for the HL-LHC to send binary hit-map at every bunch crossing (BC) to the back-end system. Such an operation poses lots of unique challenges: hit BC identification with high efficiency, fine-tuned clock distribution, robustness for SEU, and capability of timing calibration. Accommodating these requirements, the primary processor board (PS Board) is in charge of data processing and reception of control signals from the back-end. An independent control module (JATHub) will take responsibility for FPGA configuration and clock phase monitoring of the PS Boards with an SoC-based design. Prototyping and system-level demonstration with the prototypes have been performed. This experience validates our operation and commissioning strategy of the TGC electronics system for the HL-LHC.

A 4-Channel Ultra-Low Power Front-End Electronics in 65 nm CMOS for ATLAS MDT Detectors

A 4-channel front-end electronics (4 × FEE) system for the muon drift tube in the ATLAS detector in the High-Luminosity LHC is presented. The overall channel architecture is optimized to reduce the power and area of the design. Each channel comprises a charge-sensitive preamplifier (CSP), shaper, discriminator and differential low-voltage signaling drivers. The proposed channel operates with a 5–100 fC input charge and exhibits a linear sensitivity of 8 mV/fC for the entire input charge range. The peaking time delay of the analog channel is 14.6 ns. At the output, the time representation of the input signal is provided in terms of the CMOS level and in scalable low-voltage signal (SLVS). The FEE consumes a current of 10.6 mA per channel from a single 1.2 V supply voltage. The full 4 × FEE design is realized in TSMC 65 nm CMOS technology and its die-area is 2 mm × 2 mm.

Self-Powered Load Sensing Circuitry for Total Knee Replacement.

There has been a significant increase in the number of total knee replacement (TKR) surgeries over the past few years, particularly among active young and elderly people suffering from knee pain. Continuous and optimal monitoring of the load on the knee is highly desirable for designing more reliable knee implants. This paper focuses on designing a smart knee implant consisting of a triboelectric energy harvester and a frontend electronic system to process the harvested signal for monitoring the knee load. The harvester produces an AC signal with peak voltages ranging from 10 V to 150 V at different values of knee cyclic loads. This paper demonstrates the measurement results of a PCB prototype of the frontend electronic system fabricated to verify the functionality and feasibility of the proposed approach for a small range of cycling load. The frontend electronic system consists of a voltage processing unit to attenuate high peak voltages, a rectifier and a regulator to convert the input AC signal into a stabilized DC signal. The DC voltage signal provides biasing for the delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Thus, the output of the triboelectric harvester acts as both the power signal that is rectified/regulated and data signal that is digitized. The power consumption of the proposed PCB design is approximately 5.35 μW. Next, the frontend sensor circuitry is improved to accommodate a wider range of cyclic load. These results demonstrate that triboelectric energy harvesting is a promising technique for self-monitoring the load inside knee implants.

Design and Testing of the Front-End Electronics of WCDA in LHAASO

Water Cherenkov detector array (WCDA) is one of the key parts of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO), the construction of which was completed by the end of 2020. The WCDA covers a 78 000-m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> area and there exist 3120 large size photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) in three ponds: 8-in PMTs are used in WCDA pond No. 1 and 20-in PMTs are used in ponds No. 2 and No. 3. The front-end electronics (FEE) system based on multigain measurement technique is designed to achieve both high-precision time and charge measurements over a large dynamic range from single photon electron (S.P.E.) to 4000 P.E. (for water pond No. 1)/1800 P.E. (for water ponds No. 2 and No. 3). To achieve a high-quality clock distribution and phase alignment as well as mixed transmission of data, clock, and commands in one fiber over a long distance, an enhanced white rabbit (WR) technique is used. Testing of all the 350 FEE modules for the WCDA is presented in this article. Test results indicate that the charge resolution is better than 20% at S.P.E. and 1% at 1800/4000 P.E. and the time resolution is better than 300 ps root mean square (rms), which successfully meets the application requirement. All the FEE modules have been fabricated and installed for the LHAASO WCDA from 2018 to 2020, and the initial commissioning operation indicates that the FEEs function well.

A multi-functional front end readout electronics system for PET detector application

A compact, 96-ch, multi-functional and practical front-end readout electronics system for a SiPM based PET detector is developed. This electronics system is based on the latest Sigma Delta Modulation (SDM) circuit, which implements a charge-to-digital conversion (QDC) that keeps energy, timing information. In order to achieve a compact size, the system has a stacked structure including two kinds of boards, analog board and digital board. The analog board is responsible for charge integration of SDM while the digital board is for discharging feedback of the SDM circuit. Also, the digital board is applied for energy calculation, timing pickoff and data buffering and transferring. In comparison to the initial version of the SDM QDC, the input signal polarity on the electronics system is improved from negative only to both positive and negative polarities so that it can process both SiPM anode and cathode signals. Several SiPM based PET detectors are applied to validate the capability of dual polarity readout and multi-functionality. Overall, the prototype electronics system demonstrated its good performance for PET application.

Automatic Test System of the Back-End Card for the JUNO Experiment

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a medium-baseline neutrino experiment under construction in China, with the goal to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy. The JUNO electronics readout system consists of an underwater front-end electronics system and an outside-water back-end electronics system. These two parts are connected by 100-meter Ethernet cables and power cables. The back-end card (BEC) is the part of the JUNO electronics readout system used to link the underwater boxes to the trigger system is connected to transmit the system clock and triggered signals. Each BEC is connected to 48 underwater boxes, and in total around 150 BECs are needed. It is essential to verify the physical layer links before applying real connection with the underwater system. Therefore, our goal is to build an automatic test system to check the physical link performance. The test system is based on a custom designed FPGA board, in order to make the design general, only JTAG is used as the interface to the PC. The system can generate and check different data pattern at different speeds for 96 channels simultaneously. The test results of 1024 continuously clock cycles are automatically uploaded to PC periodically. We describe the setup of the automatic test system of the BEC and present the latest test results.

Characterization and QC practice of 16-channel ADC ASIC at cryogenic temperature for Liquid Argon TPC front-end readout electronics system in DUNE experiment

ColdADC is a low-noise 16-channel analog-to-digital converter ASIC designed for cold readout electronics of Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPCs) in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). ColdADC was specifically designed for operation at cryogenic temperatures (77 K–89 K). Cold electronics is considered to be an enabling technology for liquid argon detectors in neutrino experiments. The main function of the chip is to digitize signals from the 16-channel charge-sensitive amplifier designed at BNL (LArASIC) and send digitized signals to the data aggregator and serializer chip (COLDATA). ColdADC operates with a resolution of 12 bits and a sampling rate of 2 MS/s per channel. A complete characterization of prototype chips was conducted at cryogenic temperature, involving power consumption, noise and linearity performance. In the first DUNE Far-Detector module, 384000 data channels will be read out, corresponding to 24000 ColdADC chips. Therefore, systematic testing of ColdADC chips at cryogenic temperature is vital for the quality and reliability of DUNE Single-Phase modules. We have developed a Quality Control (QC) test stand that includes ColdADC evaluation and characterization at cryogenic temperature. The QC procedure was applied to a first batch of 33 chips, corresponding to 528 data channels. The obtained results meet all the required DUNE specifications for ColdADC. Moreover, the testing outcome allowed us to identify possibilities of performance optimization that are currently being addressed in the design of the next version of the chip. The Quality Control procedure is proved to be successful and will be a reference design for future large-batch production testing of final ColdADC ASICs.

Design and optimization of the CSA-based readout electronics for STCF ECAL

In this paper, a front-end electronics system based on charge sensitive amplifier (CSA) is designed to read out the signal of pure CsI (pCsI) crystal, which is the basic option of Super Tau-Charm Facility (STCF) electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL). By noise analysis and on-board testing, parameters of the readout circuit are optimized. Thus the noise of the system with large input capacitance of avalanche photodiode (APD) is significantly reduced. A noise level of 675 electrons for electronics alone and 1025 electrons with S8664-0505 APD is realized, which satisfies the project requirements.

Reliability study of custom designed ADC for the Jiangmen underground neutrino observatory

The Jiangmen underground neutrino observatory (JUNO) is the largest and most precise liquid scintillator detector under construction in the south of China. The front-end readout electronics system will be installed very close to the photomultiplier tubes under water. Therefore, the system’s absolute reliability is mandatory. As an important piece, the failure rate of the custom designed analog-to-digital convertor (ADC) must be measured. The Arrhenius High Temperature Operating Life (HTOL) model is usually used to calculate the standard reliability value failure rate ($$\lambda $$). A temperature acceleration test of the ADC is performed with a 115 $$^{\circ }$$C ambient temperature based on a custom aging system. The performance of ADC is compared before and after aging, and the most significant bit (MSB) of the digital output is monitored during the test. The result of a 2400-hour-long test shows that there were no failures. The upper limit of the failure rate is calculated as 5.8FIT, which can be added to the failure rate of other components to meet the overall failure rate requirements (84FIT). With the test system, we established a method based on the HTOL model to obtain the upper limit of the ADC reliability for overall failure rate calculation in JUNO. This method can be applied to the reliability measurement for any other custom designed ADC. This experiment can be repeated with a new set of parameters to get a satisfactory failure rate according to other overall system requirements.

First detection of the Crab Nebula at TeV energies with a Cherenkov telescope in a dual-mirror Schwarzschild-Couder configuration: the ASTRI-Horn telescope

We report on the first detection of very high-energy gamma-ray emission from the Crab Nebula by a Cherenkov telescope in dual-mirror Schwarzschild-Couder (SC) configuration. This result has been achieved by means of the 4 m ASTRI-Horn telescope, operated on Mt. Etna, Italy, and developed in the context of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory preparatory phase. The dual-mirror SC design is aplanatic and characterized by a small plate scale, which allows us to implement large cameras with a large field of view, with small-size pixel sensors and a high level of compactness. The curved focal plane of the ASTRI camera is covered by silicon photo-multipliers, managed by an unconventional front-end electronic system that is based on a customized peak-sensing detector mode. The system includes internal and external calibration systems, hardware and software for control and acquisition, and the complete data archiving and processing chain. These observations of the Crab Nebula were carried out in December 2018 during the telescope verification phase for a total observation time (after data selection) of 24.4 h, equally divided between on- and off-axis source exposure. The camera system was still under commission and its functionality was not yet completely exploited. Furthermore, due to recent eruptions of the Etna Volcano, the mirror reflection efficiency was reduced. Nevertheless, the observations led to the detection of the source with a statistical significance of 5.4σ above an energy threshold of ∼3 TeV. This result provides an important step toward the use of dual-mirror systems in Cherenkov gamma-ray astronomy. A pathfinder mini-array based on nine ASTRI-like telescopes with a large field-of-view is in the course of implementation.

KM3NeT front-end and readout electronics system: hardware, firmware, and software

The KM3NeT research infrastructure being built at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea will host water-Cherenkov telescopes for the detection of cosmic neutrinos. The neutrino telescopes will consist of large volume three-dimensional grids of optical modules to detect the Cherenkov light from charged particles produced by neutrino-induced interactions. Each optical module houses 31 3-in. photomultiplier tubes, instrumentation for calibration of the photomultiplier signal and positioning of the optical module, and all associated electronics boards. By design, the total electrical power consumption of an optical module has been capped at seven Watts. We present an overview of the front-end and readout electronics system inside the optical module, which has been designed for a 1-ns synchronization between the clocks of all optical modules in the grid during a life time of at least 20 years.

Front-end electronic readout system for the Belle II imaging Time-Of-Propagation detector

The Time-Of-Propagation detector is a Cherenkov particle identification detector based on quartz radiator bars for the Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB electron-positron collider. The purpose of the detector is to identify the type of charged hadrons produced in electron-positron collisions, and requires a single photon timing resolution below 100 picoseconds. A novel front-end electronic system was designed, built, and integrated to acquire data from the 8192 microchannel plate photomultiplier tube channels in the detector. Waveform sampling of these analog signals is done by switched-capacitor array application-specific integrated circuits. The processes of triggering, digitization of windows of interest, readout, and data transfer to the Belle II data acquisition system are managed by Xilinx Zynq-7000 programmable system on a chip devices.

Operational status of the Belle II Time-Of-Propagation counter readout and data acquisition system

Abstract The front-end electronics system for the Belle II Time-Of-Propagation (TOP) counter was fully installed in May 2016. The detector is a novel particle identification device for the barrel region, where Cherenkov ring images are reconstructed with precise timing information of each photon. The readout electronics need to have excellent timing performance for single photon detection. To exploit the benefit of high luminosity, the electronics must also be able to cope with a high input trigger rate (30 kHz) and have buffer memory which is deep enough to wait for a trigger decision ( > 5 μ s ). The TOP electronics has switching capacitor arrays to sample waveforms with 2.7 GSample/s, which allows a timing resolution of 50 ps for a single photon signal. The programmable logic and the processing system are the effective implementation to meet these requirements, where flexible optimization and step-by-step development of readout logic are possible. The system has been successfully operated in the first accelerator commissioning runs with beam collisions in 2018, where the typical trigger rate was 500 Hz . Operation with a 20 kHz trigger rate was also tested.

Front-end electronic system for large area photomultipliers readout

Abstract We developed a front-end electronic system for large area photomultipliers. Connection to the PMT can be made by a single cable, useful to minimize cabling in a underwater detector. The cabling is done in the rear part of the crate to permit easy access to the electronic boards. A front-end board houses 8 channels each one is composed by a preamplifier and a leading edge discriminator. Up to 8 front-end boards can be housed in a crate, giving a modularity of 64 channels. A controller board is needed to setup and monitor the front-end parameters. This board implements also scalers and time to digital converters with time over threshold capability. A standard gigabit ethernet line is used for communication with the outside world. Details on the design and specification of the system is reported together some preliminary measurements done with the prototypes now under test in laboratory.

A Binary Offset Effect in CCD Readout and Its Impact on Astronomical Data

We have discovered an anomalous behavior of CCD readout electronics that affects their use in many astronomical applications. An offset in the digitization of the CCD output voltage that depends on the binary encoding of one pixel is added to pixels that are read out one, two, and/or three pixels later. One result of this effect is the introduction of a differential offset in the background when comparing regions with and without flux from science targets. Conventional data reduction methods do not correct for this offset. We find this effect in 16 of 22 instruments investigated, covering a variety of telescopes and many different front-end electronics systems. The affected instruments include LRIS and DEIMOS on the Keck telescopes, WFC3 UVIS and STIS on HST, MegaCam on CFHT, SNIFS on the UH88 telescope, GMOS on the Gemini telescopes, HSC on Subaru, and FORS on VLT. The amplitude of the introduced offset is up to 4.5 ADU per pixel, and it is not directly proportional to the measured ADU level. We have developed a model that can be used to detect this “binary offset effect” in data, and correct for it. Understanding how data are affected and applying a correction for the effect is essential for precise astronomical measurements.

A front-end electronic system for large arrays of bolometers

CUORE is an array of thermal calorimeters composed of 988 crystals held at about 10 mK, whose absorbed energy is read out with semiconductor thermistors. The composition of the crystal is TeO2, and the aim is the study of the double beta decay of 130Te on very long and stable runs. CUPID-0 is an array of 26 Zn82Se crystals with double thermistor readout to study the double beta decay of 82Se. In the present paper, we present an overview of the entire front-end electronic readout chain, from the preamplifier to the anti-aliasing filter. This overview includes motivations, design strategies, circuit implementation and performance results of the electronic system, including other auxiliary yet important elements like power supplies and the slow control communication system. The stringent requirements of stability on the very long experimental runs that are foreseen during CUORE and CUPID-0 operation, are achieved thanks to novel solutions of the front-end preamplifier and of the detector bias circuit setup.

Electronic readout system for the Belle II imaging Time-Of-Propagation detector

The imaging Time-Of-Propagation (iTOP) detector, constructed for the Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB e+e− collider, is an 8192-channel high precision Cherenkov particle identification detector with timing resolution below 50 ps. To acquire data from the iTOP, a novel front-end electronic readout system was designed, built, and integrated. Switched-capacitor array application-specific integrated circuits are used to sample analog signals. Triggering, digitization, readout, and data transfer are controlled by Xilinx Zynq-7000 system on a chip devices.

First results of the INSIDE in-beam PET scanner for the on-line monitoring of particle therapy treatments

Quality assessment of particle therapy treatments by means of PET systems has been carried out since late `90 and it is one of the most promising in-vivo non invasive monitoring techniques employed clinically. It can be performed with a diagnostic PET scanners installed outside the treatment room (off-line monitoring) or inside the treatment room (in-room monitoring). However the most efficient way is by integrating a PET scanner with the treatment delivery system (on-line monitoring) so that the biological wash out and the patient repositioning errors are minimized. In this work we present the performance of the in-beam PET scanner developed within the INSIDE project. The INSIDE PET scanner is made of two planar heads, 10 cm wide (transaxially) and 25 cm long (axially), composed of pixellated LFS crystals coupled to Hamamatsu MPPCs. Custom designed Front-End Electronics (FE) and Data AcQuisition (DAQ) systems allow an on-line reconstruction of PET images from separated in-spill and inter-spill data sets. The INSIDE PET scanner has been recently delivered at the CNAO (Pavia, Italy) hadrontherapy facility and the first experimental measurements have been carried out. Homogeneous PMMA phantoms and PMMA phantoms with small air and bone inserts were irradiated with monoenergetic clinical proton beams. The activity range was evaluated at various benchmark positions within the field of view to assess the homogeneity of response of the PET system. Repeated irradiations of PMMA phantoms with clinical spread out Bragg peak proton beams were performed to evaluate the reproducibility of the PET signal. The results found in this work show that the response of the INSIDE PET scanner is independent of the position within the radiation field. Results also show the capability of the INSIDE PET scanner to distinguish variations of the activity range due to small tissue inhomogeneities. Finally, the reproducibility of the activity range measurement was within 1 mm.