FPGA-based DAQ system for multi-channel detectors

In this article a data acquisition (DAQ) system is presented consisting of FPGA-based electronics and an object-oriented readout software that has been developed for the needs of multi-channel detectors. The design goal of the DAQ electronics was to develop an affordable and scalable multi-channel system that is flexible enough to be easily adapted to the experiment requirements. The analog circuitry is integrated on separate analog boards for easy adaptation to different experiments. The heart of the electronics is a hierarchical system of up to 81 FPGAs organized in three layers. It digitizes up to 480 channels with 12 bit ADCs at 10 to 40MHz sampling rate. The electronics are interfaced by a PCI-bridge to a commercial Processor PMC board.