Prototype Analog Front-end for Negative-ion Gas and Dual-phase Liquid-Ar TPCs

Abstract

We report on the recent development of a versatile analog front-end compatible with a negative-ion $\mu$-TPC for a directional dark matter search as well as a dual-phase, next-generation $\mathcal{O}$(10~kt) liquid argon TPC to study neutrino oscillations, nucleon decay, and astrophysical neutrinos. Although the operating conditions for negative-ion and liquid argon TPCs are quite different (room temperature \textit{vs.} $\sim$88~K operation, respectively), the readout electronics requirements are similar. Both require a wide-dynamic range up to 1600 fC, and less than 2000--5000 e${}^{-}$ noise for a typical signal of 80 fC with a detector capacitance of $C_{\det }\approx 300$~pF. In order to fulfill such challenging requirements, a prototype ASIC was newly designed using 180-nm CMOS technology. Here, we report on the performance of this ASIC, including measurements of shaping time, dynamic range, and equivalent noise charge (ENC). We also demonstrate the first operation of this ASIC on a low-pressure negative-ion $\mu$-TPC.

arXiv commentaccepted by JINST

References in corpus (6)

• A review of the discovery reach of directional Dark Matter detection
• Low Threshold Results and Limits from the DRIFT Directional Dark Matter Detector
• Detecting the WIMP-wind via spin-dependent interactions
• The novel properties of SF${}_6$ for directional dark matter experiments
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Cited by in corpus (2)

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• LTARS: Analog Readout Front-end ASIC for Versatile TPC-applications