A fast tracker data acquisition system for pCT

We present a data acquisition design for a silicon-strip tracking system being constructed as part of a pre-clinical prototype scanner for proton computed tomography (pCT), capable of measuring one to two million proton tracks per second. The front end of the system is based on our ASIC design that handles 64 consecutive channels, including logic for control, calibration, buffering, and zero suppression. Each IC outputs a cluster list for each trigger, and a set of field programmable gate arrays merges those lists and builds the events to be sent to the data acquisition computer.