A RADIATION-HARDENED, LOW-COST, HIGH-FIDELITY, FIRST-LEVEL PROCESSOR FOR LARGE ARRAYS FO DETECTORS

IN PHASE I OF THIS PROJECT A LOW COST, RADIATION-HARDENED, HIGH PERFORMANCE FIRST-LEVEL PROCESSOR IS BEING DEVELOPED FOR LARGE (E.G., 10(6)) ARRAYS OF DETECTORS SUCH AS THOSE USED IN BOTH COLLIDING-BEAM AND FIXED-TARGET HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS. THE USE OF A UNIQUE DEVICE FABRICATIONPROCESS IS EXPECTED TO YIELD HARDNESS LEVELS IN EXCESS OF 10(7) RADS. IT APPEARS FEASIBLE TO ACQUIRE DATA FROM 128 TO256 DETECTORS WITH FULL 8-BIT AMPLITUDE FIDELITY ON A SINGLE8 IN. X 10 IN. CARD USING THE PLANNED RADIATION-HARDENED FABRICATION PROCESS. THE PROCESSOR SAMPLES DETECTOR DATA AT4 NS INTERVALS WITH EVERY CHANNEL. A TOTAL OF 512 SAMPLES (2.048 MUS) OF THE MOST RECENT DATA ARE STORED WHILE ANOTHERPROCESSOR DETERMINES IF THE DATA WARRANT FURTHER PROCESSING. WHEN THEY DO, THE OLDEST 64 SAMPLES (0.256 MUS)OF DATA ARE OUTPUT TO AN 8-BIT ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER. THE OUTPUT IS DOUBLE BUFFERED; THUS, THE NEXT EVENT IS NOT LOST WHILE THE FIRST EVENT IS READ OUT. A DIGITAL THRESHOLDING CIRCUIT DETERMINES IF EACH SAMPLE OF DATA IS WORTH SAVING (I.E., IT IS ABOVE THRESHOLD). IF SO, IT IS PASSED TO A FIRST IN, FIRST OUT OUTPUT STACK TOGETHER WITH DETECTOR IDENTIFICATION AND RELATIVE TIMING DATA. BECAUSE THE INPUT SAMPLER INTEGRATES OVER THE FULL SAMPLING INTERVAL, THE OUTPUT OFFERS AN EXCELLENT MEASURE OF TOTAL ENERGY. ASSUMING THAT A LARGE NUMBER OF DETECTORS ARE PRODUCED, INITIAL COST PROJECTIONS SUGGEST A COST PER DETECTOR IN THE RANGE OF $10 TO $40. POWER CONSUMPTION IS PROJECTED AT 50 MW PER CHANNEL.