Digital Acquisition: State of the Art and future prospects January 2017 Marco Locatelli marco@caentech.com ISO 9001:2008 CERT. N. 9105.CAEN

CAEN Digital Acquisition History Introduction CAEN Digital Acquisition History Started in early 2000s to replace Analog instrumentation Rapidly grew to include different models with different sampling rates, resolutions and inputs NIM/VME/Desktop form factor, to keep on working with existing instrumentation Designed with features especially for Physics community (Triggering methods, scalability, logic…) PROS: . Electronics chain simplified . Flexibility . Data saving and storing CONS: . Learning Curve . Data amount . Limit of on-line processing Reproduction, transfer, distribution of part or all of the contents in this document in any form without prior written permission of CAEN S.p.A. is prohibited 2

Introduction Users Developments The increase in the use of the proposed digital solution drove successive developments on-line algorithms for Digital Pulse Processing: Pulse Height Analysis, Pulse Shape Discrimination, Charge Integration, Zero Suppression Increased trigger logic on board (And, Or, Majorities, coincidence…) between channels or with external signals Direct read out for maximum speed Ad hoc firmware customizatiom From a general purpose product, to application specific product Reproduction, transfer, distribution of part or all of the contents in this document in any form without prior written permission of CAEN S.p.A. is prohibited 3

State Of The Art A complete set of Flash ADC and Switched Capacitor Digitizers with dedicated DPP and SW Nuclear Physics, Neutrino, Dark Matter, Nuclear Engineering, Medical Physics…. Multichannel from 1 to 64 channels per board From 62.5 MS/s to 5 GS/s, from 10-bit to 14-bit Silicon and Germanium detectors, Solid, Liquid, Plastic Scintillators + PMT and SiPMs, Gas detectors… Energy (Charge integration or Pulse Height) and Time calculation on board (Digital CFD) Form Factor-less Synchronization of tens of digitizers at once Waveform and DPP Mode Reproduction, transfer, distribution of part or all of the contents in this document in any form without prior written permission of CAEN S.p.A. is prohibited 4

A typical Full Digital Setup – Experiment Size State Of The Art A typical Full Digital Setup – Experiment Size Multiple digitizers in one or more VME crates read out by 1 computer @ 350 MB/s One 4 link A3818 PCIe card VME crate just for power and mechanics (no backplane communication) Can transfer waveforms or lists processed by CAEN proprietary DPP-PHA/CI/PSD algorithm Multicore High Speed Computers, SSDs with lots of memory Integration in facility/experiment DAQ SW Reproduction, transfer, distribution of part or all of the contents in this document in any form without prior written permission of CAEN S.p.A. is prohibited 5

What this experience can tell us about future developments? What’s next? What this experience can tell us about future developments? Technology advance driven Electronics side: New ADCs, new larger FPGA, tools for customer FPGA programming, advanced faster readout (10 Gb Ethernet, new Optical protocol…). ?New form factor? ?which sampling rate/resolution expected? Detector side: Denser arrays expected due to new detectors like SiPM and large channel counts  ASIC based boards? Faster detectors  improved timing capabilities required Reproduction, transfer, distribution of part or all of the contents in this document in any form without prior written permission of CAEN S.p.A. is prohibited 6

What this experience can tell us about future developments? What’s next? What this experience can tell us about future developments? Customer Requests Specific application: A custom development/modification that becomes a standard feature New techniques that need new features Examples: Decimation, Zero Suppression… «I would like 10 GS/s, 16 bit, 1 GB/s true transfer rate, 32 channels, open FPGA with easy programming, 100 $ per channel» Facility Requests (CERN, FRIB, FNAL, JLAB, EIC…) Standard features request: Selection of a new Form Factor Compatibility to existing infrastructures or future developments (Ethernet or other protocols, form factors…) Compatibility with existing or future DAQ Softwares. Reproduction, transfer, distribution of part or all of the contents in this document in any form without prior written permission of CAEN S.p.A. is prohibited 7

We mix all the ingredients together What’s next? The result? We mix all the ingredients together Electronics Developments Laboratories requests Customer Requests Detector Developments New applications To obtain a new, general purpose but highly customizable solution for next gen Physics experiments at a price sustainable by the community Reproduction, transfer, distribution of part or all of the contents in this document in any form without prior written permission of CAEN S.p.A. is prohibited 8

Thank you!!! Reproduction, transfer, distribution of part or all of the contents in this document in any form without prior written permission of CAEN S.p.A. is prohibited 9