FPGA-Based Solutions for Analog Data Acquisition and Processing Integrated in Area Detector Using FlexRIO Technology

Analog data acquisition systems used for diagnostics and control of large physics experiments require high sampling rates and real-time processing functionalities. The use of field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based devices allows efficient implementation of such solutions. Currently, large scientific facilities are using middleware platforms to simplify system integration. Experimental physics and industrial control system (EPICS) is one of the most popular middleware for this purpose. Moreover, heterogeneous hardware integration in these systems is a very complex task, and different approaches attempting to standardize this integration are under development and use. One of these approaches is areaDetector (AD), which involves an open source module for EPICS that is primarily used for image acquisition applications. AD simplifies the integration of heterogeneous image acquisition systems, providing a common interface between the hardware and EPICS. The AD community has already developed support for different cameras and communication protocols as well as different processing modules, including conversion to the most commonly used image formats. AD has also been used in some analog signal acquisition systems; for example, quadEM is typically used for a photodiode-based X-ray beam, but there are no implementations based on FPGA, such as FlexRIO technology. This paper presents the integration of acquisition and processing solution in a PXIe platform using the FlexRIO technology using a model that solves the acquisition and signal processing in an FPGA and a software layer implemented in C++ with the IRIO library (open source solution for RIO devices in the Linux environment).