A Prototype Readout System for the ALPIDE Pixel Sensor

The Alice pixel detector (ALPIDE) chip is a CMOS monolithic active pixel sensor developed by the A Large Ion Collider Experiment collaboration. It measures 15 mm
$\times30$
mm and contains a matrix of
$512 \times 1024$
pixels, each one measuring
$26.88\,\,\mu \text{m}\,\,\times 29.24\,\,\mu \text{m}$
. The sensor can achieve a spatial resolution of
$5~\mu \text{m}$
, and an event time resolution of 2–
$4~\mu \text{s}$
. The ALPIDE chip is suitable to be used as a sensor plane for the construction of a high-precision beam telescope, considering its excellent tracking performance. As a prototype of a single plane of the future ALPIDE-based beam telescope, we present a readout system for the ALPIDE chip in this paper. Chip threshold calibration was carried out with this system. The capability to read out the hit rate of 6 MHz/cm
²
was achieved in an X-ray radiation experiment. The spatial resolution of
$\sim 5~\mu \text{m}$
was measured in a laser beam test.