Construction of a Medium-Sized Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array: Implementation of the Cherenkov-Camera Data Acquisition System

TL;DR

This paper describes the design and implementation of a data acquisition system for a medium-sized Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope, capable of handling high data rates from a high-resolution Cherenkov camera for the CTA.

Contribution

It introduces the development and current status of a novel data acquisition system tailored for a high-pixel-count Cherenkov camera in the SCT.

Findings

Prototype SCT with 1600 pixels assembled at F.L. Whipple Observatory

Data acquisition system designed for multi-Gbps throughput

Successful integration of the system with the prototype camera

Abstract

A medium-sized Schwarzchild-Couder Telescope (SCT) is being developed as a possible extension for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). The Cherenkov camera of the telescope is designed to have 11328 silicon photomultiplier pixels capable of capturing high-resolution images of air showers in the atmosphere. The combination of the large number of pixels and the high trigger rate (> 5 kHz) expected for this telescope results in a multi-Gbps data throughput. This sets challenging requirements on the design and performance of a data acquisition system for processing and storing this data. A prototype SCT (pSCT) with a partial camera containing 1600 pixels, covering a field of view of 2.5 x 2.5 square degrees, is being assembled at the F.L. Whipple Observatory. We present the design and current status of the SCT data acquisition system.