Digitization of Waveforms from Photosensors of the DANSS Detector

Abstract

The detection equipment of the DANSS setup includes 2500 silicon photomultipliers and approximately 100 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The system of data acquisition from these photosensors is based on waveform digitization, with which it is possible to simultaneously obtain both amplitude and timing information. The modules of waveform digitizers (WFDs) are made to the VME standard and allow parallel digitization of 64 differential signals at a frequency of 125 MHz with a 12-bit amplitude resolution. The programmable logic of the WFDs provides production of the system trigger based on the analysis of the PMT signals and its propagation without any additional hardware. Owing to the extremely low analog noise, it is possible to use the full dynamic range of the digitization. These WFD modules are superior to other similar modules in the throughput and may find wide application to perform similar tasks of waveform digitization.