A new preprocessing and control board for the phase 2 electronics of AGATA experiment

Abstract

The electronics of AGATA HPGe segmented gamma ray detector faces a new challenge in the search of a bigger integration and cost reduction for the phase 2 of the experiment going beyond 45 crystals. This opportunity can be used to introduce a new architecture based on commercial standards while keeping backward compatibility with current electronics. In this sense, new FPGA devices and fast Ethernet links can be used to ease the preprocessing and control task and allowing for processor farms to distribute the processing load. At the same time, modularity should be a key feature of the design in the aim to make it upgradable in time and technology. This paper presents the design of a new preprocessing and control board that could fulfill with the experiment requirements having in mind that it should not be only a new system but also should serve as replacement of the current electronics. The design is intended to process the data coming from 3 crystals (114 channels) in the same board, with a total aggregate bandwidth of 216 Gpbs using 2 Gbps input optical fiber links in SNAP12 format and with a data readout done through Ethernet fiber optics. It is expected that, with this new system, the level of integration will raise up to 3 times while cost will scale down a 30% with respect to the current electronics.