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An innovative Cylindrical Gas Electron Multiplier (CGEM) detector is under construction for the upgrade of the inner tracker of the BESIII experiment. A novel system has been worked out for the readout of the CGEM detector, including a new ASIC, dubbed TIGER -Torino Integrated GEM Electronics for Readout, designed for the amplification and digitization of the CGEM output signals. The data output by TIGER are collected and processed by a first FPGA-based module, GEM Read Out Card, in charge of configuration and control of the front-end ASICs. A second FPGA-based module, named GEM Data Concentrator, builds the trigger selected event packets containing the data and stores them via the main BESIII data acquisition system. The design of the electronics chain, including the power and signal distribution, will be presented together with its performance.

The main purpose of the HeLLo project is to contribute to data available on the literature on the real hygrothermal behavior of historic walls and the suitability of insulation technologies. Furthermore, it also aims at minimizing the energy simulation errors at the design phase and at improving their conservation features. In this framework, one of the preliminary activities of the study is the creation of a real in situ hot box to measure and analyze different insulation technologies applied to a real historic wall, to quantify the hygrothermal performance of a masonry building. Inside this box, ‘traditional’ experiments can be carried out: recording heat flux, surface temperature, and air temperatures, as well as relative humidity values through the use of a new sensing system (composed of thermocouples and temperature/relative humidity combined sensors). Within this paper, the process of development, construction, and validation of this new metering box is exhibited. The new hot box, specifically studied for historic case studies, when compared to other boxes, presents other advantages compared to previous examples, widely exemplified.

A large area ring-imaging Cherenkov detector will be operated for hadron identification in the 3 GeV / c to 8 GeV / c momentum range at the CLAS12 experiment at the upgraded continuous electron beam accelerator facility of Jefferson Lab. The detector, consisting of aerogel radiator, composite mirrors and photon counters, will be built with a hybrid optics design to allow the detection of Cherenkov light for both forward and large angle hadron tracks. The active area has to be densely packed and highly segmented, covering about 1 m 2 with pixels of 6 mm 2 , and to allow a time resolution of 1 ns. A technology that can offer a cost-effective solution and low material budget could be Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM) thanks to their high gain at low bias voltage, fast timing, good single-photoelectron resolution and insensitivity to magnetic fields. An investigation is ongoing on samples of 3 × 3 mm 2 SiPM of different micro-cell size to assess the single photon detection capability in the presence of high dark count rate due to thermal generation effects, after-pulses or optical cross-talk and to study the response to the moderate radiation damage expected at CLAS12. In this work, a brief review of the latest and most interesting results from these studies will be shown.

Gaseous detectors are used in high energy physics as trackers or, more generally, as devices for the measurement of the particle position. For this reason, they must provide high spatial resolution and they have to be able to operate in regions of intense radiation, i.e. around the interaction point of collider machines. Among these, Micro Pattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGD) are the latest frontier and allow to overcome many limitations of the pre-existing detectors, such as the radiation tolerance and the rate capability. The gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) is a MPGD that exploits an intense electric field in a reduced amplification region in order to prevent discharges. Several amplification stages, like in a triple-GEM, allow to increase the detector gain and to reduce the discharge probability. Reconstruction techniques such as charge centroid (CC) and micro-Time Projection Chamber ($\upmu$TPC) are used to perform the position measurement. From literature triple-GEMs show a stable behaviour up to $10^8\,$Hz/cm$^2$. A testbeam with four planar triple-GEMs has been performed at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI) facility and their performance was evaluated in different beam conditions. In this article a focus on the time performance for the $\upmu$TPC clusterization is given and a new measurement of the triple-GEM limits at high rate will be presented.

A ring imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector has been installed in the CLAS12 spectrometer at Jefferson Laboratory (JLab) to provide kaon identification in the momentum range between 3 GeV/c and 8 GeV/c. The detector adopts a hybrid optics solution with aerogel radiator, light planar and spherical mirrors, and highly segmented photon detectors. We report here on the design, construction, and initial performance of the RICH during the commissioning of the detector and the first physics data taking period.

International audience; The GigaTracKer (GTK) is the beam spectrometer of the CERN NA62 experiment. The detector features challenging design specifications, in particular a peak particle flux reaching up to 2.0 MHz/mm$^2$, a single hit time resolution smaller than 200 ps and, a material budget of 0.5% X$_0$ per tracking plane. To fulfill these specifications, novel technologies were especially employed in the domain of silicon hybrid time-stamping pixel technology and micro-channel cooling. This article describes the detector design and reports on the achieved performance.

We present a novel application of strain-gauge plethysmography that is suitable to detect blood volume variations in the human venous system. The plethysmography system uses capacitive sensors that are electrically connected to a portable electronic unit to record changes of blood volume over time. Such system has been developed within a project that aimed to monitor the cerebral venous return of the astronaut during an experiment on the International Space Station. In this work, we describe the novel solution in which measurement of elongation is directly obtained by charging the sensor capacitance with a constant current. We also report the full characterization of the plethysmography system and an example of the experimental protocol that has been performed in microgravity condition. Remarkably, the system we propose is able to detect cross-sectional area variations of neck veins with enough sensitivity to be useful for studies concerning cardiac oscillations.

Thirty-three-thousand CLARO8 ASICs were produced in 0.35μm CMOS technology and will be installed in the upgraded LHCb detector at CERN. Radiation hardness has been extensively characterized and compared to prototype production.

The first module of a Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector has been recently installed on the CLAS12 spectrometer at the Jefferson Laboratory (JLab) to provide the experiment with kaon identification in the momentum range between 3 and 8 GeV/c. The detector adopts a hybrid optics solution with aerogel radiator, light planar and spherical mirrors and highly-segmented photon detectors. We report here on the assembly and installation of the RICH and we show the first preliminary results obtained during the commissioning of the detector and the first physics data taking.

The first module of the hybrid-optics large-area CLAS12 RICH at JLab has been recently put into operation using for the first time the well known Hamamatsu H8500 MAPMT and the new single-photon dedicated H12700, for a total of about 400 MAPMTs and 25000 pixels. The photon detector must efficiently detect single photons in the visible and near-UV light region, provide a fast response for background rejection and pattern recognition, and have a spatial resolution of less than 1 cm over an area of ≈ 1 m 2 . Each front-end readout unit is composed of three electronic boards with specific tasks directly connected to groups of 2 or 3 sensors. The core of the readout is composed of MAROC3 and FPGA chips. The MAROC3 chip is able to discriminate the 64 signals from one MAPMT and to produce 64 corresponding binary outputs with 100% efficiency starting at a small fraction of the single-photon signal, while the FPGA chip provides 1 ns TDC capability with 8 μ s maximum latency and acts as a DAQ controller. The system is designed to be almost dead-time free at the foreseen 20 kHz CLAS12 trigger rate. The best working conditions for single-photon detection have been studied at laser stands, test beams, and with the JLab electron beam data. A report of the photon detector preparation, commissioning and operation is here discussed.

This article aims to properly assess the hygrothermal properties of walls located in historic buildings, this study discloses the development of a remote sensing technology compatible with an in-situ measurement implemented in Palazzo Tassoni (Italy). As required by the international recommendations adapted to cultural heritage (CH), this monitoring system balances CH conservation, performance aspects and economic costs using an integrated multidisciplinary approach. Electronics for measurement of environmental parameters is composed of sensor measurements, data acquisition system and data storage and communication system. Data acquisition system, equipped with standard modbus-rtu interface, is designed to run standalone and it is based on two cloned single board PCs to reduce the possibility of data loss. In order to reduce the costs, RaspberryPI single board PCs were chosen. These run a C/C++ software based on standard modbus library and designed to implement multi-client server TCP/IP to allow communication with other devices. Storage and communication systems are based on an industrial PC, it communicates with sensor measurements&rsquo, system through a modbus-TCPIP bridge. PC runs a Labview software to provide data storage on a local database and graphical user interface to properly see all acquired data. Herein, some sensing options and approaches of measurement are described, unveiling different possible ways of enhancing the retrofit of CH with adapted technology.

A new version of the CLARO8 ASIC has been designed in AMS 0.35 μm CMOS technology, based on radiation hardened by design cells, and extensively tested. Results on the complete radiation hardness characterization are presented.

A large area imaging Cherenkov detector is under construction to provide hadron identification in the momentum range between 3 and 8 GeV/c for the CLAS12 exeperiment at the new 12 GeV electron beam of the Jefferson Laboratory (JLab). The detector adopts a hybrid optics solution with aerogel radiator, light planar and spherical mirrors and highly-segmented photon detectors. Cherenkov photons will be imaged either directly (for forward tracks) or after two mirror reflections (large angle tracks). The status of the detector construction is here reported.

In this paper we propose a new scanner for small animal positron emission tomography (PET) based on stacks of double sided silicon detectors. Each stack is composed of 40 planar detectors with dimension 60 mm x 60 mm x 1 mm and 128 orthogonal strips on both sides to read the two coordinates of interaction, the third being the detector number in the stack. Multiple interactions in a stack are discarded. In this way we achieve a precise determination of the first interaction point of the two 511 keV photons. The price to pay is an efficiency reduction for each stack of about 50%. The reduced dimensions of the scanner also improve the solid angle coverage resulting in a high sensitivity. Preliminary results were obtained with the MEGA prototype tracker. Here, we report on the results obtained with double sided silicon prototype detectors, manufactured by ITC-FBK, having an active area of 3 cm X 3 cm and a strip pitch of 500 μm. Two different strip widths of 300 μm and 200 μm, and two thicknesses of 1 mm and 1.5 mm, equipped with 64 orthogonal p and n strips on opposite sides were read out with the VATAGP2.5 ASIC, a 128channel "general purpose" charge sensitive amplifier. We describe the experimental setup, the measurements and the results in terms of spatial resolution, spectral and timing performances obtained with the prototype detectors.

An 8-channel front-end ASIC has been designed in 0.35 micron CMOS technology for the upgrade of the LHCb RICH detectors at CERN. The chip allows fast single-photon counting up to 40 MHz, with a peaking time of 5 ns and a power consumption of about 1 mW per channel. Results of the characterisation of the first version of the chip are presented, including measurements in the lab with a dedicated test system. Radiation hardness tests are described as well, including measurements of total-ionising dose and single event effects.

The CLARO-CMOS is a prototype ASIC that allows fast photon counting with low power consumption, built in AMS 0.35 μm CMOS technology. It is intended to be used as a front-end readout for the upgraded LHCb RICH detectors. In this environment, assuming 10 years of operation at the nominal luminosity expected after the upgrade, the ASIC must withstand a total fluence of about 6×10 12 1 MeV n eq /cm 2 and a total ionising dose of 400 krad. Long term stability of the electronics front-end is essential and the effects of radiation damage on the CLARO-CMOS performance must be carefully studied. This paper describes results of multi-step irradiation tests with protons up to the dose of ~8 Mrad, including measurement of single event effects during irradiation and chip performance evaluation before and after each irradiation step.

In this paper we present a study of the neutrons-induced damage in Silicon Photo-Multipliers. Twenty-six devices, produced by AdvanSiD, Hamamatsu and SensL, have been irradiated at the Geel Electron LINear Accelerator (GELINA) in Belgium with a nearly white neutron beam. The total 1 MeV equivalent integrated dose was 6.2 × 109 neq/cm2. Photodetector performances have been measured during the whole irradiation period and a gradual worsening of the detector properties, such as dark current and charge spectra, has been observed. An extensive comparison of the performances of all the tested devices will be presented. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl.

The CLARO-CMOS is a prototype ASIC that allows fast photon counting with 5 ns peaking time, a recovery time to baseline smaller than 25 ns, and a power consumption of less than 1 mW per channel. This chip is capable of single-photon counting with multi-anode photomultipliers and finds applications also in the read-out of silicon photomultipliers and microchannel plates. The prototype is realized in AMS 0.35 micron CMOS technology. In the LHCb RICH environment, assuming 10 years of operation at the nominal luminosity expected after the upgrade in Long Shutdown 2 (LS2), the ASIC must withstand a total fluence of about 6×10 12 1 MeV n eq / cm 2 and a total ionizing dose of 400 krad. A systematic evaluation of the radiation effects on the CLARO-CMOS performance is therefore crucial to ensure long term stability of the electronics front-end. The results of multi-step irradiation tests with neutrons and X-rays up to the fluence of 10 14 cm −2 and a dose of 4 Mrad, respectively, are presented, including measurement of single event effects during irradiation and chip performance evaluation before and after each irradiation step.

A large area ring-imaging Cherenkov detector has been designed to provide clean hadron identification capability in the momentum range from 3 GeV/c to 8 GeV/c for the CLAS12 experiments at the upgraded 12 GeV continuous electron beam accelerator facility of Jefferson Lab to study the 3D nucleon structure in the yet poorly explored valence region by deep-inelastic scattering, and to perform precision measurements in hadronization and hadron spectroscopy. The adopted solution foresees a novel hybrid optics design based on an aerogel radiator, composite mirrors and densely packed and highly segmented photon detectors. Cherenkov light will either be imaged directly (forward tracks) or after two mirror reflections (large angle tracks). The preliminary results of individual detector component tests and of the prototype performance at test-beams are reported here.

The CLARO-CMOS is a prototype ASIC primarily designed for single-photon counting with multi-anode photomultipliers (Ma-PMTs), that found applications also in the read-out of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and microchannel plates (MCPPMTs). The chip allows fast photon counting up to 40 MHz, with a power consumption of less than 1 mW per channel. The prototype is realised in a 0.35 micron CMOS technology. In the LHCb RICH environment, over ten years of operation at the nominal luminosity for the upgrade, the ASIC must withstand a total fluence of about 6×1012 1 MeV neutron equivalent cm -2 and a total ionising dose of 400 krad. We present the results of multi-step irradiation tests with neutrons and with X-rays up to the fluence of 1014 cm-2 and 4 Mrad, respectively, including measurement of single event effects during irradiation and the evaluation of chip performance before and after each irradiation step. © 2013 IEEE.

In this paper we present a study of the neutrons-induced damage in Silicon Photo-Multipliers. Twenti-six devices, produced by AdvanSiD, Hamamatsu and SensL, have been irradiated at the Geel Electron LINear Accelerator (GELINA) in Belgium on a nearly white neutron beam. The total 1 MeV equivalent integrated dose was 6.2×109n eq /cm2. Photodetector performances have been measured during the whole irradiation period and a gradual worsening of the detector properties, like dark current and charge spectra, has been observed. An extensive comparison of the performances of all the devices will be presented.

The CLARO is an ASIC for single photon counting with pixellated photomultipliers, designed to sustain a high counting rate at low power. It was primarily developed to readout multi-anode photomultipliers (Ma-PMTs) in the upgraded LHCb RICH detectors at the LHC. The first four-channel prototype, named CLARO-CMOS, was realized in a 0.35 μm CMOS technology, demonstrating the capability to count single photons at very high rates, up to 10 MHz, with a low power consumption of about 1 mW per channel. In this paper, the first tests of the single photon counting performance of the CLARO-CMOS coupled to a Hamamatsu R11265 multi-anode photomultiplier tube are presented. © 2013 IEEE.

An ASIC named CLARO-CMOS was designed for fast photon counting with MaPMTs, MCPs and SiPMs. The prototype was realized in a .35 μm CMOS technology and has four channels, each with a fast amplifier and a discriminator. The main features of the design are the high speed of operation and the low power dissipation, below 1 mW per channel. This paper focuses on the use of the CLARO for SiPM readout. The ASIC was tested with several SiPMs of various sizes, connected to the input of the chip both directly and through a coaxial cable about one meter long. In the latter case the ASIC is still fully functional although the speed of response is affected by the cable capacitance. The threshold could be set just above the single photoelectron level, and with 1 ×1 mm2 SiPMs the discrete photoelectron peaks could be well resolved.

We report radiation hardness tests performed, with a white neutron beam, at the Geel Electron LINear Accelerator in Belgium on silicon Photo-Multipliers. These are semiconductor photon detectors made of a square matrix of Geiger-Mode Avalanche photo-diodes on a silicon substrate. Several samples from different manufacturers have been irradiated integrating up to about 6.2 × 10 9 1-MeV-equivalent neutrons per cm2. © 2013 IEEE.

We propose a new scanner for small animal Positron Emission Tomography (PET) based on stacks of double sided silicon detectors. Each stack is made of 40 planar detectors with dimension 60×60×1 mm 3 and 128 orthogonal strips on both sides to read the two coordinates of interaction, the third being the detector number in the stack. Multiple interactions in a stack are discarded by an exclusive OR applied between each detector plane of a stack. In this way we achieve a precise determination of the interaction point of the two 511 keV photons. The reduced dimensions of the scanner also improve the solid angle coverage resulting in a high sensitivity. Preliminary results were obtained with MEGA prototype tracker (11 double sided Si detector layers), divided into two stacks 2 cm apart made of, respectively, 5 and 6 prototype layers, placing a small spherical 22 Na source in different positions. We report on the results, spatial resolution, imaging and timing performances obtained with double sided silicon detectors, manufactured by ITC-FBK, having an active area of 3×3 cm 2 , thickness of 1 mm and a strip pitch of 500 μ m . Two different strip widths of 300 and 200 μ m equipped with 64 orthogonal p and n strips on opposite sides were read out with the VATAGP2.5 ASIC, a 128-channel “general purpose” charge sensitive amplifier.

We report radiation hardness tests performed at the Frascati Neutron Generator on silicon Photo-Multipliers, semiconductor photon detectors built from a square matrix of avalanche photo-diodes on a silicon substrate. Several samples from different manufacturers have been irradiated integrating up to 7x10^10 1-MeV-equivalent neutrons per cm^2. Detector performances have been recorded during the neutron irradiation and a gradual deterioration of their properties was found to happen already after an integrated fluence of the order of 10^8 1-MeV-equivalent neutrons per cm^2., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to Nucl. Inst. Meth. A

The existing muon detectors for high-energy physics experiments are mainly made of gas chambers such as Resistive Plate Chambers, Limited Streamer Tubes or Multi Wire Proportional Chambers. With the increasing luminosity of the new accelerators and the increment in dimensions of the experiments the development of a new detection technique, which is robust, cheap and capable to sustain high particle rate, is mandatory. We present the technology proposed for the Super B muon system. The detector is based on MINOS style extruded scintillators coupled to wavelength shifting fibers. The light readout is done by means of Silicon Photomultiplier devices. We report the R&D results on prototypes that can be operated either with binary readout, measuring only one coordinate, or with a TDC readout that can measure both the coordinate at the same time with adequate precision. Efficiency and time resolution will be discussed for different prototype geometry as well as the main operational issues related to the photodetectors, like stability, noise rate and neutron damage. A full-scale prototype with the same geometry designed for the SuperB experiment is under construction in our lab and it will be tested with a muon/pion beam at FNAL next fall. The structure optimization has been studied using a GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulation and the expected muon identification performances have been evaluated with a neural network algorithm, we present preliminary results of the optimization and its implication for the SuperB muon system.

We present the technology proposed for the super B muon system. The detector is based on MINOS style extruded scintillator coupled to wavelength shifting fibers. The light readout is done by means of Silicon Photomultiplier devices. We report our RD setup optimization and experimental issues are also discussed as well as the future plans and perspectives.

We studied with Monte Carlo simulations, using the EGSnrc code, a new scanner for small animal positron emission tomography (PET), based on stacks of double-sided semiconductor detectors. Each stack is composed of planar detectors with dimension 70×60×1 mm3 and orthogonal strips on both sides with 500 μm pitch to read the two interaction coordinates, the third being the detector number in the stack. Multiple interactions in a stack are discarded. In this way, we achieve a precise determination of the first interaction point of the two 511 keV photons. The reduced dimensions of the scanner also improve the solid angle coverage resulting in a high sensitivity. Preliminary results of scanners based on Si planar detectors are presented and the initial tomographic reconstructions demonstrate very good spatial resolution limited only by the positron range. This suggests that, this is a promising new approach for small animal PET imaging. We are testing some double-sided silicon detectors, equipped with 128 orthogonal p and n strips on opposite sides using VATAGP3 ASIC by IDEAS.

A new read-out for the drift chambers (DCH) (8192 channels) of the NA48 experiment at CERN has been developed and realized by the Ferrara and Torino INFN sites and has taken data during the 2002 run. The core of the system is a set of 32 VME-9U Time-to-Digital-Converter boards (NA48-TDC). The NA48-TDCs record the time of arrival of signals from the DCH and store them in 40 MHz pipelined ring memories pending the trigger supervisor's decision. Dual memories and data extraction resources allow independent and simultaneous processing of level-1 and level-2 trigger requests. Time measurements are performed by the TDC-F1 commercial ASICs, having an intrinsic time resolution of 120 ps and multi-hit capabilities. The NA48-TDC board features a maximum sustained rate of 500 kHz per channel.

A small animal PET-SPECT scanner (YAPPET) prototype was built at the Physics Department of the Ferrara University and is presently being used at the Nuclear Medicine Department for radiopharmaceutical studies on rats. The first YAPPET prototype shows very good performances, but needs some improvements before it can be fully used for intensive radiopharmaceutical research. The main problem of the actual prototype is its heavy electronics, based on NIM and CAMAC standard modules. For this reason a new, compact read-out electronics was developed and tested. The results of a first series of tests made on the first prototype will be presented in the paper.

The CLARO-CMOS is a prototype ASIC designed for fast photon counting with multi-anode photomultiplier tubes (MaPMT). The CLARO features a 5 ns peaking time, a recovery time to baseline smaller than 25 ns, and a power consumption of less than 1 mW per channel. The chip was designed in 0.35 μm CMOS technology, and was tested for radiation hardness with neutrons up to 1014 1 MeV neq/cm2, X-rays up to 40 kGy and protons up to 76 kGy. Its capability to read out single photons at high rate from a Hamamatsu R11265 MaPMT, the baseline photon detector for the LHCb RICH upgrade, was demonstrated both with test bench measurements and with actual signals from a R11265 MaPMT. The presented results allowed CLARO to be chosen as the front-end readout chip in the upgraded LHCb RICH detector.

A small animal PET-SPECT scanner (YAP-(S)PET) prototype was built at the Physics Department of the University of Ferrara and is presently being used at the Nuclear Medicine Department for radiopharmaceutical studies on rats. The first YAP-(S)PET prototype shows very good performances, but needs some improvements before it can be used for intensive radiopharmaceutical research. The main problem of the actual prototype is its heavy electronics, based on NIM and CAMAC standard modules. For this reason a new, compact readout electronics was developed and tested. The results of a first series of tests made on the first prototype will be presented in this paper.