Front end electronics and readout system for a gas radiator ring imaging Cherenkov detector using multi-anode photomultiplier tubes

We describe the design and performance of a novel custom made front end ASICs and their associated data acquisition (DAQ) system that we developed to process charge signals from an array of 53 Hamamatsu multi-anode photomultiplier tubes (MAPMTs) used as photon detectors for a ring imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector. This system was tested as part of a gas radiator RICH prototype in the test beam facility at Fermilab. The VA MAPMT ASIC has 64 readout channels with built-in discriminator and parallel binary readout; features low noise, high dynamic range and is suitable for data driven architecture. We characterized a second iteration of this design that features higher dynamic range and optimum performance for large signals in our electronics laboratory test-setup.