An Extensible Induced Position Encoding Readout Method for Micropattern Gas Detectors

The large number of electronics channels has become an issue to the further applications of micropattern gas detectors (MPGDs) and poses a big challenge for the integration, power consumption, cooling, and cost. Induced position encoding readout technique provides an attractive way to significantly reduce the number of readout channels. In this paper, we present an extensible induced position encoding readout method for MPGDs. The method is demonstrated by the Eulerian path of the graph theory. A standard encoding rule is provided, and a general formula of encoding and decoding for n channels is derived. Under the premise of such method, a 1-D induced position encoding readout prototyping board is designed on a 5 × 5 cm
²
thick gas electron multiplier, where 47 anode strips are readout by 15 encoded multiplexing channels. Verification tests are carried out on an 8-keV Cu X-ray source with 100-μm slit. The test results show a robust feasibility of the method and have a good spatial resolution and linearity in its position response. This method can dramatically reduce the number of readout channels, has potential to build large-area detectors, and can be easily adapted to other detectors like MPGDs.