A Fast Readout Electronic System for Accurate Spatial Detection in Ion Beam Tracking for the Next Generation of Particle Accelerators

This paper presents the design, implementation, and measurements of a complete electronic frontend intended for high-resolution spatial detection of ion beams at counting rates higher than 106 particles per second (p/s). The readout system is made up of three main multichannel building blocks, namely, a transimpedance preamplifier, a signal-conditioning line receiver, and a charge-to-digital converter, as well as some off-the-shelf components. The preamplifier and the line receiver have been specifically designed and optimized to minimize the overlapping probability of ion beams tracking, at high counting rates, in low-pressure gaseous secondary electron detectors. Experimental results are shown, considering α particles sources and particles beams, featuring an adaptive shaping time frame of 170-230 ns with a peak signal-to-noise ratio of up to 25 dB. These performance metrics are competitive with the state of the art, demonstrating the suitability of the reported data acquisition and instrumentation system for precise and fast particle tracking detection.

[1]  M. Villa,et al.  Electron Interference via a 4096-Pixel MAPS Detector Designed for High-Energy Physics Experiments , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[2]  P. Besson,et al.  A gas secondary electron detector , 2002 .

[3]  Andreas Zimbal,et al.  Accurate nuclear transition data determined by prompt (n,γ)-spectrometry , 2000 .

[4]  Luis Hervás,et al.  The ATLAS liquid argon electromagnetic calorimeter: construction, commissioning and selected test beam results , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[5]  S. Incerti,et al.  Geant4 developments and applications , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[6]  H. Spieler,et al.  Front-end electronics and trigger systems - status and challenges , 2007 .

[7]  Matteo Perenzoni,et al.  A Multispectral Analog Photon-Counting Readout Circuit for X-ray Hybrid Pixel Detectors , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[8]  J. Pancin,et al.  Secondary electrons detectors for beam tracking: micromegas and wire chamber , 2009 .

[9]  Joaquin Ceballos Caceres,et al.  A preamplifier for the front-end readout system of particles tracking in secondary electron detectors , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems.

[10]  A. Ealet,et al.  The CPLEAR detector at CERN , 1996 .

[11]  M. Kuster,et al.  A Prototype Compton Camera Array for Localization and Identification of Remote Radiation Sources , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[12]  Wail Gueaieb,et al.  Pileup Correction Algorithms for Very-High-Count-Rate Gamma-Ray Spectrometry With NaI(Tl) Detectors , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[13]  Sibylle Ziegler,et al.  An analog signal processing ASIC for a small animal LSO–APD PET tomograph , 2006 .

[14]  L. Nalpas,et al.  A large tracking detector for low-energy ions , 2004 .

[15]  L. Hervas The ATLAS liquid argon electromagnetic calorimeter: construction., commissioning and elected test beam results , 2004, Proceedings of the 21st IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37510).

[16]  D. Doering,et al.  Implementation and Performance of the Electronics and Computing System of the Gamma Ray Energy Tracking In-Beam Nuclear Array (GRETINA) , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[17]  O. Limousin,et al.  IDeF-X V1.0: performances of a new CMOS multi channel analogue readout ASIC for Cd(Zn)Te detectors , 2005, IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, 2005.

[18]  E. Delagnes,et al.  IDeF-X V1.1: Performances of a New CMOS 16 Channels Analogue Readout ASIC for Cd(Zn) Te Detectors , 2006, 2006 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record.

[19]  Ezzat G. Bakhoum,et al.  Alpha-Particle-Based Icing Detector for Aircraft , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[20]  B. Lofstedt,et al.  The readout system of the CPLEAR electromagnetic calorimeter , 1992 .

[21]  Helmuth Spieler,et al.  Semiconductor Detector Systems , 2005 .

[22]  E. Delagnes,et al.  SFE16, a low noise front-end integrated circuit dedicated to the read-out of large Micromegas detectors , 2000 .

[23]  Sara Sulis,et al.  On the Measurement of Power Quality Indexes for Harmonic Distorsion in the Presence of Capacitors”, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement , 2007 .

[24]  José Manoel de Seixas,et al.  A fast multichannel analyzer for radiation detection applications , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[25]  Marco Parvis,et al.  Modified POF Sensor for Gaseous Hydrogen Fluoride Monitoring in the Presence of Ionizing Radiations , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.