Design of High-speed readout electronics for the DarkSHINE electromagnetic calorimeter

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and testing of a high-speed, high-precision readout electronics system for the DarkSHINE electromagnetic calorimeter, enabling accurate energy measurement at high event rates for dark photon searches.

Contribution

It introduces a novel readout electronics system with dual-channel high-speed ADCs and a double-gain scheme for high dynamic range and precision in a high-rate calorimeter environment.

Findings

Signal-to-noise ratio > 66 dBFS

Energy resolution of 5.96% at 2.6 MeV

Successful waveform digitization at 1 GSPS

Abstract

The DarkSHINE experiment aims to search for dark photons by measuring the energy loss of the electrons recoiled from fixed-target. Its electromagnetic calorimeter is primarily responsible for accurately reconstructing the energy of the recoil electrons and bremsstrahlung photons. The performance of the electromagnetic calorimeter is crucial, as its energy measurement precision directly determines the sensitivity to the search for dark photons. The DarkSHINE electromagnetic calorimeter uses LYSO crystals to form a fully absorptive electromagnetic calorimeter. It utilizes SiPMs to detect scintillation light in the crystals, and its readout electronics system deduces the deposited energy in the crystals by measuring the number of photoelectric signals generated by the SiPMs. The DarkSHINE electromagnetic calorimeter aims to operate at an event rate of 1-10 MHz, detecting energies ranging from 1 MeV to 1 GeV. To meet the requirements of high energy measurement precision, high event rate, and large dynamic range, we have researched and designed a readout electronics system based on dual-channel high-speed ADCs and a customized DAQ. The front-end amplification part of this system uses low-noise trans-impedance amplifiers to achieve high-precision waveform amplification. It successfully achieves a dynamic range up to a thousandfold through a double-gain readout scheme. The digital part uses 1 GSPS high-speed ADCs to achieve non-dead-time, high-precision waveform digitization. The DAQ part uses JESD204B high-speed serial protocol to read out the signal from ADC, and transmit it to PC software for processing and storage. Test results show a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 66 dBFS and an ENOB greater than 10.6 bits. Energy spectra measurements have been conducted using LYSO crystals and SiPMs, and an energy resolution of 5.96% at the 2.6 MeV gamma peak of Th-232 has been achieved.