Experimental Setup

RD51 SRS Electronics

The minimum required components for SRS electronics are listed in the table below. The prices below are subject to change and can be seen at this link.

In addition to the above table you must also acquire the equipment described in either Option 1 or Option 2 below. The additional equipment described in each of these options ensures the clock and trigger received by each FEC is syncrhonized with the other FECs. Running a multi-FEC system without one of these two sets of equipment will lead to crashes as the FECs will eventually go out of sync. Note these two are mutually exclusive. You only need to choose one. Also it is advisable to have some spare APV hybrids (an equal amount of master and slaves), and potentially one spare FEC and ADC.

Ethernet cables are used to connect the FEC's. Standard Category 5 cables do not have sufficient shielding and are inadvisable. We recommend you use Category 7 (CAT7) ethernet cables and 10 GbE transceivers. You will need two 10 GbE transceivers per CAT7 cable; and you will need one CAT7 cable per FEC.

You will also need one Xlinx platform cable for uploading the firmware to the FEC's.

For additional information regarding the SRS system as a whole please contact Hans Mueller of the RD51 Collaboration.

Option 1: Using Scaleable Readout Unit

Note: the commends below do not consider the zero suppression firmware.

The scaleable readout unit (SRU) provides a common synchronized clock and trigger to up to 40 FEC's. In addition it is responsible for transferring recorded data to the PC. A setup with an SRU can reach much higher acquisition rates than a setup without the SRU. This is the primary advantage. There are two options for the SRU they differ only in the power of their FPGA. Both are listed in the table below but only one SRU is required.

Option 2: Using SRS CTGF

Note: the commends below do not consider the zero suppression firmware.

The SRS Clock and Trigger Generator & FAN-OUT (CTGF) provides a common synchronized clock and trigger to up to 8 FEC's. Unlike the SRU it does not handle data transfer to the PC. The CTGF was developed by ATLAS CTGF and is not listed in the CERN store. The point of contact we have for the SRS CTGF is Givi Sekhniaidze of the ATLAS Collaboration.

The 10 GbE Network switch is an off-the-shelf commercial product and can be purchased from any preferred vendor.

Experimental Procedure

-- BrianDorney - 2015-09-07