Data acquisition system for PICASSO experiment

This paper describes the data acquisition system (DAQ) developed for the PISASSO project (Project In Canada to Search for Supersymmetric Objects) - the ongoing low background experiment located about 2 km underground at the SNOLAB, Ontario, Canada. This experiment employs an unconventional radiation detecting technique using piezo sensors to detect production of sound by superheated liquid when nuclear recoil takes place in the active region of the detector. Related to such technique specifics of the electronics requirements are discussed in details. The evolution of the DAQ solutions is presented for three different stages of the experiment corresponding to increased active mass of the detector during each stage. Emphasis is given to the current version of DAQ designed for a total of 32 detectors (288 channels). A brief description of the future scaling to 4000 channel system is given as well.