A Prototype of Trigger Electronics for LAWCA Experiment

TL;DR

This paper presents a reconfigurable, FPGA-based trigger electronics prototype for the LAWCA experiment, enhancing data handling, system simplicity, and stability in high-energy gamma-ray detection.

Contribution

It introduces a single-module, FPGA-based trigger electronics system that improves flexibility, reduces complexity, and supports high data rates for the LAWCA experiment.

Findings

Prototype functions well in simulations and initial tests.

Achieves real-time trigger processing at 5.4 Gbps.

Eliminates dedicated trigger signals for better stability.

Abstract

The Large Area Water Cherenkov Array (LAWCA) experiment focuses on high energy gamma astronomy between 100 GeV and 30 TeV. Invoked by the idea of hardware triggerless structure, a prototype of LAWCA trigger electronics is implemented in one single VME-9U module which obtains all the data from the 100 Front End Electronic (FEE) endpoints. Since the trigger electronics accumulates all the information, the flexibility of trigger processing can be improved. Meanwhile, the dedicated hardware trigger signals which are fed back to front end are eliminated; this leads to a system with better simplicity and stability. To accommodate the 5.4 Gbps system average data rate, the fiber based high speed serial data transmission is adopted. Based on the logic design in one single FPGA device, real-time trigger processing is achieved; the reprogrammable feature of the FPGA device renders a reconfigurable structure of trigger electronics. Simulation and initial testing results indicate that the trigger electronics prototype functions well.