A CCD Based Read-Out for a Charged Particle Identifier

A CAMAC based modular read-out system utilizing charge coupled devices (CCD) has been constructed for use with a charged particle identifier in a high energy physics experiment at Fermilab. The system consists of a master clock module and several eight channel CCD read-out modules. The master clock module controls the state of the system and processes event triggers. It communicates with the rest of the system by clock pulses for data acquisition and to drive a-d conversion sequence. A start read-out signal (SRO) changes the system from acquire to read-out mode. The read-out module contains the analog electronics, analog to digital converter, on board buffer memory, control and the necessary CAMAC functions and receives clock and SRO from master clock module.