LABORATORI NAZIONALI DI LEGNARO
Recently, a group of researchers form INFN – Padova, LNL, Milano and IFIC – Valencia released a “Working Document on the Specifications for a Second Generation of Front–End Electronics (FEE) for AGATA” and for the future GALILEO array of detectors which will be placed at INFN – LNL. Even if the new architecture for the 2nd generation of FEE for AGATA keeps the complete functionality of the present electronics, the new modules reduce considerably the power consumption and the costs. More over, one of the main differences between the two setups of AGATA FEE lies in the concept of the serial–digital preamplifier. On the other hands, the discovery of the 8B/10B encoders (JEDS204 standard in 2006 and its further upgrades up to JEDS204B in 2011) stimulated some leading manufactures of electronic components in their R&D effort for very fast pipe–line ADCs with very fast serial I/O, appropriate for the direct fiber link transmission. Based on these two recent new developments, most probable, it is the best time to initiate an adjacent effort to develop a serial digital preamplifier, actually desired by the community, since long time ago not only to reduce the added noise on the transmission line between the FEE and the DAQ but also to extend the transmission line length, to reduce the crosstalk etc. The main goal is to convert the present AGATA dual gain core FEE into a new complete digital FEE, placed in a similar detector cryostat (with segmented or non–segmented HPGe detector). The new FEE will include also the fast pipe–line dual ADC and the 8B/10B encoder (standard JEDS204B) which will permits to connect the outputs directly to an optical transceiver. Some related issues, pros and cons in component selection, feature selections are also presented.

DATA: 25-07-2013