An analog-to-digital converter and intelligent controller for use in a DAQ system processing PMT signals from very high energy astrophysics experiments

摘要： Modern instrumentation for very high energy gamma-ray astronomy and astrophysics requires efficient and precise digitisation of PMT signals from Cherenkov light generated by incoming cosmic ray particles over the energy range from hundreds of GeV up to several hundred TeV. This dynamic range of more than 1000 is coupled with a requirement for very low noise operation. We have developed modern multi-channel analog-to-digital converters (model BPA-8) together with a data acquisition system managed with an intelligent crate-controller (model K-167) which controls the measurement modules. The electronics described in this paper is accepted to be used to record PMT signals with high precision and efficiency, allowing reliable extraction and precise analysis of Cherenkov signals from high energy gamma-rays emitted by astrophysical objects.