High-energy cosmic rays are one of the primary sources of information for scientists investigating the elementary properties of matter. The need to study cosmic rays, with energies thousands of times larger than those encountered in particle accelerators, led to the development of modern detection hardware and experimental methodologies. We present a low power, low complexity data acquisition (DAQ) system with 100 ps resolution, suitable for particle and radiation detection experiments. The system uses a Multiple-Time-over-Threshold (MToT) technique for the treatment of the output signal of Photo Multiplier Tubes (PMTs). The use of three thresholds compensates for the slewing effects and offers a more accurate measurement of the PMT pulses' width. For the evaluation of the pulse the system uses comparators and a Time-to-Digital (TDC) converter, whereas the pulses are time-stamped using the GPS signal. The prototype card is analyzed for its noise behavior and is tested to verify its performance. The system has been designed for the HEllenic LYceum Cosmic Observatories Network (HELYCON) Extensive Air Showers (EAS) detector.
A scientific instrument comprised of a global network of millions of independent, connected, remote devices presents unique data acquisition challenges. We describe the software design of a mobile application which collects data from smartphone cameras without overburdening the phone's CPU or battery. The deployed software automatically calibrates to heterogeneous hardware targets to improve the quality and manage the rate of data transfer, and connects to a cloud-based data acquisition system which can manage and refine the operation of the network.
The development of the Skipper Charge Coupled Devices (Skipper-CCDs) has been a major technological breakthrough for sensing very weak ionizing particles. The sensor allows to reach the ultimate sensitivity of silicon material as a charge signal sensor by unambiguous determination of the charge signal collected by each cell or pixel, even for single electron-hole pair ionization. Extensive use of the technology was limited by the lack of specific equipment to operate the sensor at the ultimate performance. In this work a simple, single-board Skipper-CCD controller is presented, aimed for the o…
In this paper, we describe a modular data acquisition system developed as the foundation of a cosmic ray detector network. Each detector setup (henceforth referred as a station) is composed of an independent hardware device that can be controlled and read-out through the Internet. This device is designed to acquire and process the signal of up to eight different detector planes. Each of these detector planes uses plastic scintillator slabs that are optically coupled to silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). Within a single station, different geometries and plane orientations are possible using the s…
We have assembled a small-scale streaming data acquisition system based on the SAMPA front-end ASIC. We report on measurements performed on the SAMPA chip and preliminary cosmic ray data acquired from a Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detector read out using the SAMPA.
This work reports a cost-effective, simple front-end readout and DAQ of a RPC-based muon scattering tomography system under construction. The Time-over-threshold property of NINO ASICs has been exploited to achieve precise tracking by extraction of position information. The use of a low-cost FPGA for event selection and TOT measurement has been demonstrated for a prototype RPC which has been triggered by a cosmic ray hodoscope of three plastic scintillators. The relation between input pulse width and TOT has been established by analyzing the waveforms of the RPC signals. The TOT profile at dif…
We present the facilities of the Aragats Space Environmental Center in Armenia used during multi-year observations of the thunderstorm ground enhancements (TGEs) and corresponding environmental parameters. We analyze the characteristics of the scintillation detectors, operated on Aragats, and describe the coordinated detection of TGEs by the network of scintillation detectors, field meters, and environmental parameters. By using a fast synchronized data acquisition system we reveal correlations of the multivariate data on time scales from second to nanosecond which allow us to gain insight int…
The paper presents the design and qualification tests of an airborne experimental setup to determine cosmic ray-flux in the lower stratospheric regions of the earth's atmosphere. The concept of coincidence is implemented to preferentially detect cosmic rays and reject noise and particles that are incident at large angles but otherwise have similar characteristics, and are therefore inseparable from the particles of interest by conventional detection techniques. The experiment is designed to measure cosmic ray flux at two altitudes extending to a maximum height of 30 km from mean-sea-level. The…
New front-end electronics including ASICs and FPGA boards are under development for the ATLAS Monitored Drift Tube (MDT) detector to handle the large data rates and harsh environment expected at high-luminosity LHC runs. A mobile Data Acquisition (miniDAQ) system is designed to perform integration tests of these front-end electronics. In addition, it will be used for surface commissioning of 96 small-radius MDT (sMDT) chambers and for integration and commissioning of new front-end electronics on the present ATLAS MDT chambers. Details of the miniDAQ hardware and firmware are described in this …
During the last couple of decades, the use of arrays of bolometers has represented one of the leading techniques for the search for rare events. CUORE, an array of 988 TeO$_2$ bolometers that is taking data since April 2017 at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy), exploits the large mass, low background, good energy resolution and low energy threshold of these detectors successfully. Thanks to these characteristics, they could be also sensitive to other low energy rare processes, such as galactic dark matter interactions. In this paper we describe the data acquisition system that wa…
Discriminating cosmic muon and x-ray based on rising time using GEM detector
气体电子倍增器（GEM）探测器是近十年来用于宇宙μ子散射层析成像和中子成像的探测器。研制了有效读出面积为10 cm × 10 cm的三重GEM器件，并进行了基于上升时间的宇宙μ子和X射线鉴别实验。利用55Fe射线源对GEM探测器的能量分辨率进行了测试，证明GEM探测器具有良好的性能。完整的信号周期的分析允许得到上升时间和脉冲高度。实验结果表明，通过适当的上升时间阈值，可以区分宇宙μ子和X射线。
The aim of this work is to test the capacity of a low cost but powerful device to be used in gamma spectrometry. The IZIRUNF0 [1] is an embedded STM32 board device with an ARM Cortex-M0 microcontroller build in. The possibilities offered by the configuration (direct memory access controller (DMA) acquisition through circular buffer, 12-bit analog to digital converter (ADC), analog watchdog for threshold on ADC, embedded data acquisition, etc.) make it interesting to be used within an autonomous compact particle spectrometry system. Therefore, we have tested it for a pulse like shape (15 μs wid…
