Level-1 jet trigger hardware for the ALICE electromagnetic calorimeter at LHC

The ALICE experiment at the LHC is equipped with an electromagnetic calorimeter (EMCal) designed to enhance its capabilities for jet measurement. In addition, the EMCal enables triggering on high energy jets. Based on the previous development made for the Photon Spectrometer (PHOS) level-0 trigger, a specific electronic upgrade was designed in order to allow fast triggering on high energy jets (level-1). This development was made possible by using the latest generation of FPGAs which can deal with the instantaneous incoming data rate of 26 Gbit/s and process it in less than 4 {\mu}s.Comment: proceeding of TWEPP-10 at Aachen. 6 pages, 4 figure

NIKEL: Electronics and data acquisition for kilopixels kinetic inductance camera

A prototype of digital frequency multiplexing electronics allowing the real time monitoring of microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKIDs) arrays for mm-wave astronomy has been developed. Thanks to the frequency multiplexing, it can monitor simultaneously 400 pixels over a 500 MHz bandwidth and requires only two coaxial cables for instrumenting such a large array. The chosen solution and the performances achieved are presented in this paper.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figure

MIMAC: MIcro-tpc MAtrix of Chambers for dark matter directional detection

Directional detection of non-baryonic Dark Matter is a promising search strategy for discriminating WIMP events from neutrons, the ultimate background for dark matter direct detection. This strategy requires both a precise measurement of the energy down to a few keV and 3D reconstruction of tracks down to a few mm. The MIMAC (MIcro-tpc MAtrix of Chambers) collaboration has developed in the last years an original prototype detector based on the direct coupling of large pixelized micromegas with a special developed fast self-triggered electronics showing the feasibility of a new generation of directional detectors. The first bi-chamber prototype has been installed at Modane, underground laboratory in June 2012. The first undergournd background events, the gain stability and calibration are shown. The first spectrum of nuclear recoils showing 3D tracks coming from the radon progeny is presented.Comment: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Directional Dark Matter Detection CYGNUS2013, held in Toyoma (Japan), June 201

NIKEL_AMC: Readout electronics for the NIKA2 experiment

The New Iram Kid Arrays-2 (NIKA2) instrument has recently been installed at the IRAM 30 m telescope. NIKA2 is a state-of-art instrument dedicated to mm-wave astronomy using microwave kinetic inductance detectors (KID) as sensors. The three arrays installed in the camera, two at 1.25 mm and one at 2.05 mm, feature a total of 3300 KIDs. To instrument these large array of detectors, a specifically designed electronics, composed of 20 readout boards and hosted in three microTCA crates, has been developed. The implemented solution and the achieved performances are presented in this paper. We find that multiplexing factors of up to 400 detectors per board can be achieved with homogeneous performance across boards in real observing conditions, and a factor of more than 3 decrease in volume with respect to previous generations.Comment: 21 pages; 16 figure

Trigger and readout electronics for the STEREO experiment

The STEREO experiment will search for a sterile neutrino by measuring the anti-neutrino energy spectrum as a function of the distance from the source, the ILL nuclear reactor. A dedicated electronic system, hosted in a single microTCA crate, was designed for this experiment. It performs triggering in two stages with various selectable conditions, processing and readout via UDP/IPBUS of 68 photomultiplier signals continuously digitized at 250 MSPS. Additionally, for detector performance monitoring, the electronics allow on-line calibration by driving LED synchronously with the data acquisition. This paper describes the electronics requirements, architecture and the performances achieved.Comment: Topical Workshop on Electronics for Particle Physics (TWEPP) 2015, Lisboa. 9 pages, 9 figure

MIMAC : A micro-tpc matrix for directional detection of dark matter

Directional detection of non-baryonic Dark Matter is a promising search strategy for discriminating WIMP events from background. However, this strategy requires both a precise measurement of the energy down to a few keV and 3D reconstruction of tracks down to a few mm. To achieve this goal, the MIMAC project has been developed. It is based on a gaseous micro-TPC matrix, filled with CF4 and CHF3. The first results on low energy nuclear recoils (H, F) obtained with a low mono-energetic neutron field are presented. The discovery potential of this search strategy is discussed and illustrated by a realistic case accessible to MIMAC.Comment: 6 pages, Proc. of the fifth international symposium on large TPCs for low energy rare event detection, Paris, France, Dec. 2010. To appear in Journal of Physic

Design and construction of a Cherenkov imager for charge measurement of nuclear cosmic rays

A proximity focusing Cherenkov imager called CHERCAM, has been built for the charge measurement of nuclear cosmic rays with the CREAM instrument. It consists of a silica aerogel radiator plane across from a detector plane equipped with 1,600 1" diameter photomultipliers. The two planes are separated by a ring expansion gap. The Cherenkov light yield is proportional to the charge squared of the incident particle. The expected relative light collection accuracy is in the few percents range. It leads to an expected single element separation over the range of nuclear charge Z of main interest 1 < Z < 26. CHERCAM is designed to fly with the CREAM balloon experiment. The design of the instrument and the implemented technical solutions allowing its safe operation in high altitude conditions (radiations, low pressure, cold) are presented.Comment: 24 pages, 19 figure

Data acquisition electronics and reconstruction software for real time 3D track reconstruction within the MIMAC project

Directional detection of non-baryonic Dark Matter requires 3D reconstruction of low energy nuclear recoils tracks. A gaseous micro-TPC matrix, filled with either 3He, CF4 or C4H10 has been developed within the MIMAC project. A dedicated acquisition electronics and a real time track reconstruction software have been developed to monitor a 512 channel prototype. This autotriggered electronic uses embedded processing to reduce the data transfer to its useful part only, i.e. decoded coordinates of hit tracks and corresponding energy measurements. An acquisition software with on-line monitoring and 3D track reconstruction is also presented.Comment: Proceedings of TWEPP-11, Vienna, Austria, 26-30 September 201

High Current, High frequency ECRIS development program for LHC heavy ion beam application

A research program with the aim of producing pulsed currents with hitherto unequalled intensity of Pb27+, with length and repetition ratecompatible with those desired by CERN (1 mAe / 400 ms / 10 Hz in the context of future heavy ion collisions at LHC) is organised in acollaboration between CERN/GSI/CEA-Grenoble and IN2P3-ISNG.Two main experimental programs will be carried out : (i) tests with the LNS-Catania team on the SERSE superconducting source with a 28 GHzgyrotron, (ii) tests on a non-superconducting source (new source at Grenoble) with a 28 GHz gyrotron. For this purpose CEA/DRFMC hasborrowed from CEA a 28 GHz - 10 kW gyrotron transmitter.The project includes also the construction of a source body, by ISNG, with conventional coils and permanent magnets for working at the frequencyof about 28 GHz and biased up to 60 kV. This source called PHOENIX will run on a test bench at ISN. PHOENIX is an improvement of thepresent ECR4-14.5 GHz/CERN source, having a mirror ratio R=2 at 14.5 GHz, and R=1.7 at 28 GHz (possibly reaching 2.1 T on the axis of thesource), and with a plasma volume up to 2.5 larger.Experiments at 28 GHz will be performed on the SERSE source in Catania at INFN/LNS where both the axial and the hexapolar fields will bevaried so that the mirror ratio is continuously varied up to R=1.6 ; the SERSE source will be also operated at lower magnetic fields such as thosewhich can be produced by conventional magnets (less than 2 T axial field at injection - far from the 28 GHz High-B mode)