The DAQ for the Single Phase DUNE Prototype at CERN

TL;DR

This paper describes the data acquisition system for the ProtoDUNE-SP prototype, a large-scale neutrino experiment at CERN, detailing its design, electronics, and data handling capabilities to meet the experiment's demanding scale.

Contribution

It introduces the DAQ system for ProtoDUNE-SP, including hardware choices, data flow software, and custom electronics, tailored for a large-scale neutrino detection experiment.

Findings

Successful implementation of DAQ for 480 Gb/s data stream

Effective data compression reducing bandwidth to 20 Gb/s

Integration of off-the-shelf electronics for rapid deployment

Abstract

DUNE will be the world's largest neutrino experiment due to take data in 2025. Here is described the data acquisition (DAQ) system for one of its prototypes - ProtoDUNE-SP due to take data in Q4 of 2018. ProtoDUNE-SP also breaks records as the largest beam test experiment yet constructed, and is a fundamental element of CERN's Neutrino Platform. This renders ProtoDUNE-SP an experiment in its own right and the design and construction have been chosen to meet this scale. Due to the aggressive timescale, off-the-shelf electronics have been chosen to meet the demands of the experiment where possible. The ProtoDUNE-SP cryostat comprises two primary subdetectors - a single phase liquid Argon TPC and a companion Photon Detector. The TPC has two candidate readout solutions under test in ProtoDUNE-SP - RCE (ATCA-based) and FELIX (PCIe-based). Fermilab's artDAQ is used as the dataflow software for the experiment. Custom timing and trigger electronics and software are also described. Compression and triggering will take the ~480 Gb/s of data from the front-end and reduce it sufficiently to 20 Gb/s bandwidth to permanent data storage in CERN's EOS infrastructure.