Performance of 20:1 multiplexer for large area charge readouts in directional dark matter TPC detectors

TL;DR

This paper presents a 20:1 multiplexer system for charge readouts in large-area directional dark matter detectors, reducing costs while preserving key charge distribution information after demultiplexing.

Contribution

Introduction of a multiplexing system based on LMH6574 chips that significantly reduces the number of readout channels in TPC detectors.

Findings

Multiplexer reduces readout channels by a factor of 20.

Charge distribution asymmetry is preserved after multiplexing.

System is suitable for large-area TPC detector scaling.

Abstract

More target mass is required in current TPC based directional dark matter detectors for improved detector sensitivity. This can be achieved by scaling up the detector volumes, but this results in the need for more analogue signal channels. A possible solution to reducing the overall cost of the charge readout electronics is to multiplex the signal readout channels. Here, we present a multiplexer system in expanded mode based on LMH6574 chips produced by Texas Instruments, originally designed for video processing. The setup has a capability of reducing the number of readouts in such TPC detectors by a factor of 20. Results indicate that the important charge distribution asymmetry along an ionization track is retained after multiplexed signals are demultiplexed.