1. Digital Acquisition: State of the Art and future prospects
January 2017
Marco Locatelli
ISO 9001:2008
CERT. N CAEN

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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