Prototype Design of Readout Electronics for the Multiple Sampling Ionization Chamber at HIAF-HFRS

Nuclear physics using radioactive beams has been the most dynamic research area in nuclear science. A High Intensity Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) is currently under construction, which includes the installation of a cutting-edge High Energy Fragment Separator (HFRS) with high energy and intensity capabilities. The HFRS uses the magnetic rigidity-time of flight-energy loss (B<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\rho $ </tex-math></inline-formula>–TOF–<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta {E}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) method, which has been commonly used in nuclear fragmentation secondary beam devices to achieve high magnetic rigidity, large ion-optical acceptance, and excellent particle identification. The energy loss (<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta {E}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) detector plays a crucial role in particle identification. The energy loss detector is designed using the multiple sampling ionization chamber (MUSIC) detector. It can significantly improve the energy resolution of the gas ionization chamber through multiple samplings. The prototype of the readout electronics of one MUSIC consists of eight charge-sensitive preamplifier (CSP) modules and one readout control electronic (RCE) module. The CSPs placed inside the MUSIC read the MUSIC charge signals. An RCE has eight signal input channels. The RCE receives voltage signal pulses from the CSPs, amplifies, filters, and digitizes the signal. The measured data are packed and transferred to the data acquisition (DAQ) system via a 10-Gb Ethernet protocol. The readout electronics have been tested. The test results indicate that the noise performance is better than 0.22 mV (i.e., the root-mean-square (rms) error), and the nonlinearity of the entire readout electronics is less than 0.17%. The joint test results of the MUSIC detector show that it has excellent performance in measuring the radioactive source and heavy ion beams. This article will discuss the design and performance of the readout electronics.