The PMT Acquisition and Trigger Generation System of the HEPD-02 Calorimeter for the CSES-02 Satellite

Abstract

This contribution describes the acquisition and trigger system for the HEPD-02 calorimeter that will be used onboard the CSES-02 satellite for the CSES/Limadou mission. This mission arises from the collaboration between the Chinese Space Agency (CNSA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and plans the realization of a constellation of satellites which will monitor ionospheric parameters supposed to be related to earthquakes. It will also monitor the solar activity and the interaction with the magnetosphere and will study the cosmic rays in low energy ranges, extending data from PAMELA and AMS. The CSES-02 satellite will be equipped with various instruments, including the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-02), which was designed to measure the energy of particles coming from Van Allen belts. Signals from the HEPD-02 are acquired and digitized by an electronic board that also produces the trigger for the experiment. A new generation ASIC (CITIROC) for the amplification, shaping and memorization of signals from PMTs will be used on this board. The new ASIC allows the use of the peak detector feature, optimizing the acquisition of signals with different temporal characteristics. Along with this, new algorithms for trigger generation have been developed, providing trigger pre-scaling, concurrent trigger masks and Gamma Ray Burst detection. Using pre-scaled concurrent triggers will allow the study of very sensitive regions of a satellite’s orbit such as the South Atlantic Anomaly and polar regions and to detect rare events such as GRBs while still monitoring particle bursts. In this contribution, the progress status of this work will be presented along with the measurements and tests made to finalize the flight model of the board.