The Heavy Photon Search Silicon Vertex Tracker data acquisition system

The Heavy Photon Search (HPS) experiment at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) will search for heavy photons, which are new hypothesized massive vector bosons. The experiment consists of an electromagnetic calorimeter and Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT). The SVT Data Acquisition System (DAQ) supports readout and processing of signals from 36 silicon strip sensors of the SVT. It also selects and transfers those events that were identified by the trigger system to the JLab DAQ for further event processing at rates approaching 50 kHz. Complex front-end electronics for digitization and power distribution are deployed inside the vacuum chamber in order to reduce vacuum penetration count and shorten analog signal paths. A strong magnetic field used by the experiment also complicates the electronics design. The SLAC RCE platform is utilized upstream to process and filter raw sensor data for delivery to the JLab DAQ. The system was commissioned and tested at nominal operating conditions during a run in 2015.