A VLSI ASIC front end for the optical module of the NEMO underwater neutrino detector

Author

Presti, Domenico Lo ; Randazzo, Nunzio ; Caponetto, Luigi

Author_Institution

Catania Phys. & Astron. Dept., Italy

Volume

53

Issue

3

fYear

2006

fDate

6/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

709

Lastpage

714

Abstract

The work described here has been developed in the context of the NEMO Collaboration with the aim of studying and designing a front-end electronics for the Optical Modules, which contain the telescope optical sensors, as a full-custom Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). The solution has a multitude of advantages. The most important are low power consumption and the preanalysis and suitable reduction of data to be transferred to the shore station for acquisition. A detailed description of the chosen architecture and the design principles of the blocks, that carry out the specialized function required by this architecture, will be given. The chips produced will be described and the test measurements performed will be shown.

Keywords

VLSI; application specific integrated circuits; neutrino detection; nuclear electronics; optical sensors; sample and hold circuits; trigger circuits; Application Specific Integrated Circuit; NEMO underwater neutrino detector; VLSI ASIC front end; Very Large Scale Integration; analog memories; data reduction; design principles; front-end electronics; hold circuits; low power consumption; optical module; sample circuits; shore station; telescope optical sensors; test measurements; trigger circuits; Application specific integrated circuits; Collaborative work; Energy consumption; Integrated optics; Neutrino sources; Optical design; Optical sensors; Telescopes; Underwater tracking; Very large scale integration; Analog memories; application specific integrated circuits; sample and hold circuits; trigger circuits; very-large-scale integration;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNS.2006.875048

Filename

1644930