Design and Operation of Front-End Electronics for the HERA-B Muon Detector

We have implemented a cost-effective design for the readout electronics of both the anode wires and the cathode pads of large area proportional wire chambers for the HERA-B muon system based on the ASD-08 integrated circuit. To control and monitor the large number of readout channels, we have built a distributed control system based on Philips Semiconductors' I2C bus and microcontrollers. To date we have installed about 10800 channels of muon chambers and electronics. The average single channel noise occupancy is less than 10**-5, and the detectors have been operated with target interaction rates as high as 70 MHz