A study of a prototype DAQ system with over 10 Gbps bandwidth for the SACLA X-ray experiments

We have developed a novel prototype front-end data acquisition (DAQ) system for a two-dimensional (2D) X-ray detector for X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) experiments. The spring-8 angstrom compact free-electron laser (SACLA), a new XFEL facility at the super photon ring-8 GeV (SPring-8) site, is providing an XFEL for X-ray experiments. Because coherent X-ray imaging is one of our target experiments, a 2D X-ray detector is used to obtain detailed information of materials. The 2D X-ray detector is continually being upgraded, and its output data bandwidth has been drastically increased. A novel 2D X-ray sensor at SPring-8, the silicon-on-insulator photon imaging array sensor (SOPHIAS) detector is under development, and its design specification is more than 10 Gbps of bandwidth for a single sensor. Therefore, a new DAQ system with greater bandwidth is required, and hence, we have developed and evaluated a new front-end DAQ system that can handle data with more than 10 Gbps bandwidth. This system also allows flexible changing of input/output interfaces to support SOPHIAS detector upgrades that are both long-term and phase-by-phase. We describe the development of a new front-end DAQ system and present its evaluation results.