Scalable Data Acquisition System Research Articles

NEXT-CRAB-0: a high pressure gaseous xenon time projection chamber with a direct VUV camera based readout

The search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) remains one of the most compelling experimental avenues for the discovery in the neutrino sector. Electroluminescent gas-phase time projection chambers are well suited to 0νββ searches due to their intrinsically precise energy resolution and topological event identification capabilities. Scalability to ton- and multi-ton masses requires readout of large-area electroluminescent regions with fine spatial resolution, low radiogenic backgrounds, and a scalable data acquisition system. This paper presents a detector prototype that records event topology in an electroluminescent xenon gas TPC via VUV image-intensified cameras. This enables an extendable readout of large tracking planes with commercial devices that reside almost entirely outside of the active medium. Following further development in intermediate scale demonstrators, this technique may represent a novel and enlargeable method for topological event imaging in 0νββ.

A reconfigurable detector for measuring the spatial distribution of radiation dose for applications in the preparation of individual patient treatment plans

In this work, a novel reconfigurable Dose-3D detector intended for a full spatial therapeutic dose measurement to improve radiotherapy treatment planning is presented. The device is composed of a reconfigurable detection phantom allowing patient-centric adjustments to its geometry, a scalable data acquisition system (including hardware, firmware, and low-level software) designed to change with the phantom’s configuration seamlessly, and a high-level software package for tumour geometry extraction based on computer tomography scans. Extracted geometry will be used in the Monte Carlo simulations and the configuration of the phantom. Each of the components to be used in the measurement system has been assessed obtaining the following results. The scintillating voxels’ light output is sufficient. The data acquisition system with its hardware and software has been tested using artificial testing signals and laser light proving a reliable and robust means of physics data reconstruction.

The DAQ system of the 12,000 channel CMS high granularity calorimeter prototype

The CMS experiment at the CERN LHC will be upgraded to accommodate the 5-fold increase in the instantaneous luminosity expected at the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) [1]. Concomitant with this increase will be an increase in the number of interactions in each bunch crossing and a significant increase in the total ionising dose and fluence. One part of this upgrade is the replacement of the current endcap calorimeters with a high granularity sampling calorimeter equipped with silicon sensors, designed to manage the high collision rates [2]. As part of the development of this calorimeter, a series of beam tests have been conducted with different sampling configurations using prototype segmented silicon detectors. In the most recent of these tests, conducted in late 2018 at the CERN SPS, the performance of a prototype calorimeter equipped with ≈12,000 channels of silicon sensors was studied with beams of high-energy electrons, pions and muons. This paper describes the custom-built scalable data acquisition system that was built with readily available FPGA mezzanines and low-cost Raspberry Pi computers.

A Generic High Bandwidth Data Acquisition Card for Physics Experiments

In high energy physics and nuclear physics experiments, particularly the ones based on a particle accelerator, the data rate from the detector is usually in the order of terabytes per second. These high throughput data from detector front-end electronics (FEEs) need to be transmitted to the back-end computing farm for high-level event selection and building. A data acquisition (DAQ) system with the features of high density, scalable, and easily upgradeable is crucial to simplify the readout architecture of the whole experiment. This article will introduce the design of a generic high bandwidth PCIe card, which can be used as the important input-output card in a scalable DAQ system. It can factorize FEEs from data handling and reduce the amount of custom hardware in favor of scalable detector-independent commercial hardware and software. Besides the 48 channels of bidirectional high-speed fiber optical links with front ends, it also supports to synchronize with the experiment timing system and to fan-out the clock and trigger information with a fixed latency to the FEEs.

A Software-Defined Radio Receiver for Wireless Recording From Freely Behaving Animals.

To eliminate tethering effects on the small animals' behavior during electrophysiology experiments, such as neural interfacing, a robust and wideband wireless data link is needed for communicating with the implanted sensing elements without blind spots. We present a software-defined radio (SDR) based scalable data acquisition system, which can be programmed to provide coverage over standard-sized or customized experimental arenas. The incoming RF signal with the highest power among SDRs is selected in real-time to prevent data loss in the presence of spatial and angular misalignments between the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) antennas. A 32-channel wireless neural recording system-on-a-chip (SoC), known as WINeRS-8, is embedded in a headstage and transmits digitalized raw neural signals, which are sampled at 25 kHz/ch, at 9 Mbps via on-off keying (OOK) of a 434 MHz RF carrier. Measurement results show that the dual-SDR Rx system reduces the packet loss down to 0.12%, on average, by eliminating the blind spots caused by the moving Tx directionality. The system operation is verified in vivo on a freely behaving rat and compared with a commercial hardwired system.

Employing digital pulse processing electronics for the readout of a Si(Li)—Compton—polarimeter for the SPARC collaboration

The future x-ray spectroscopy and polarimetry experiment program of the SPARC collaboration at GSI and FAIR relies strongly on the availability of two-dimensional position-sensitive, energy- and time-dispersive thick semiconductor detector systems, including the appropriate signal processing electronics. To meet these demands, the development of a compact and scalable data acquisition system that has higher rate acceptance compared to commercial VME electronics by employing digital pulse processing electronics was started.

Development of a modular and scalable data acquisition system for calorimeters at a linear collider

A data acquisition (DAQ) system has been developed which will read out and control calorimeters serving as prototype systems for a future detector at an electron-positron linear collider. This is a modular, flexible and scalable DAQ system in which the hardware and signals are standards-based, using FPGAs and serial links. The idea of a backplaneless system was also pursued with a commercial development board housed in a PC and a chain of concentrator cards between it and the detector forming the basis of the system. As well as describing the concept and performance of the system, its merits and disadvantages are discussed.

The data acquisition system of the Stockholm educational air shower array

The Stockholm Educational Air Shower Array (SEASA) project is deploying an array of plastic scintillator detector stations on school roofs in the Stockholm area. Signals from GPS satellites are used to time synchronise signals from the widely separated detector stations, allowing cosmic ray air showers to be identified and studied. A low-cost and highly scalable data acquisition system has been produced using embedded Linux processors which communicate station data to a central server running a MySQL database. Air shower data can be visualised in real-time using a Java-applet client. It is also possible to query the database and manage detector stations from the client. In this paper, the design and performance of the system are described