A compact system for two-dimensional readout of Gas Electron Multiplier detectors

There is a growing interest in the use of Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) and other micro-pattern gas detectors (MPGD) for two-dimensional (2-D) position sensitive measurements of photons or charged particles. A Gas Electron Multiplier Readout Chip (GEMROC) is an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) dedicated for 2-D strip readout of GEM detectors. The ASICs deliver the amplitudes and time coordinates of the signals recorded on two sets of orthogonal strips. Timing information is used for finding coincidences of signals on two spatial coordinates while amplitude information is used to find the center of gravity for the cluster of signals belonging to the same detection event. In this paper we present a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based compact readout system dedicated for these ASICs. The readout system consists of two synchronized FPGA-ADC boards connected to four front-end boards, each one equipped with two GEMROCs. Both FPGAs are connected to a DAQ PC using separate Gigabit Ethernet links. The DAQ PC is equipped with a dedicated C++ based software, which is responsible for configuration of the FPGAs and ASICs settings, storing all the incoming data as well as for on-line/off-line data processing and visualization. The performance of the system is illustrated by test bench measurements.