Pico TOF: A Time-of-Flight Data Acquisition System for Ultra-Fast Particle Detectors

70460 A cost-effective time-of-flight (TOF) particle detector will improve particle identification at much higher momentum than is possible with dE/dx methods at next generation particle accelerators. Particle identification will in turn enable improved determination of the temperature of the fireball from which these particles are created. This project will build and test a low-cost TOF data acquisition system with time resolution of 50 - 100 picoseconds, based on two previously developed technologies: (1) high performance amplifier and discriminator electronics, and (2) time-to-digital converter chips developed at CERN. In Phase I, two time-of-flight data acquisition circuit cards, with time resolution of 50 to 100 picoseconds, will be designed using two different time-to-digital converter chips designed for high energy physics research. Their performance in the laboratory will be tested with scintillation detectors and resistive-plate chamber (RPC) detectors. In Phase II, the electronics for the TOF data system will be manufactured in the large volumes, combined with existing detectors, added to a high-speed communications link, and integrated into a detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The TOF data acquistion system should present a cost-effective solution to TOF measurement for particle identification in heavy ion collisions. Hundreds of systems would be required for a variety of high energy and nuclear physic experiments. In addition, rapidly growing markets would exist in TOF mass spectrometry, gas chromatography, and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) for remote sensing, terrain mapping, and other applications.