TY - JOUR
T1 - New readout and data-acquisition system in an electron-tracking Compton camera for MeV gamma-ray astronomy (SMILE-II)
AU - Mizumoto, T.
AU - Matsuoka, Y.
AU - Mizumura, Y.
AU - Tanimori, T.
AU - Kubo, H.
AU - Takada, A.
AU - Iwaki, S.
AU - Sawano, T.
AU - Nakamura, K.
AU - Komura, S.
AU - Nakamura, S.
AU - Kishimoto, T.
AU - Oda, M.
AU - Miyamoto, S.
AU - Takemura, T.
AU - Parker, J. D.
AU - Tomono, D.
AU - Sonoda, S.
AU - Miuchi, K.
AU - Kurosawa, S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan (Grant numbers 21224005 , 20244026 , 23654067 , 25610042 ), a Grant-in-Aid from the Global COE program “Next Generation Physics, Spun from Universality and Emergence” from the MEXT of Japan , and a Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows (Grant numbers 09J01029 , 11J00606 , 13J01213 ). This study was also supported by “SENTAN” program promoted by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) . During the development of FE2009bal chips, this study was supported by VLSI Design and Education Center (VDEC) , the University of Tokyo in collaboration with Cadence Design Systems, Inc . During the development of the μ-PIC readout boards and the PMT high-voltage-supply boards, technical support was provided by KEK-DTP and Open-It (Open Source Consortium of Instrumentation) [38] .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2015/11/11
Y1 - 2015/11/11
N2 - For MeV gamma-ray astronomy, we have developed an electron-tracking Compton camera (ETCC) as a MeV gamma-ray telescope capable of rejecting the radiation background and attaining the high sensitivity of near 1 mCrab in space. Our ETCC comprises a gaseous time-projection chamber (TPC) with a micro pattern gas detector for tracking recoil electrons and a position-sensitive scintillation camera for detecting scattered gamma rays. After the success of a first balloon experiment in 2006 with a small ETCC (using a 10×10×15 cm3 TPC) for measuring diffuse cosmic and atmospheric sub-MeV gamma rays (Sub-MeV gamma-ray Imaging Loaded-on-balloon Experiment I; SMILE-I), a (30 cm)3 medium-sized ETCC was developed to measure MeV gamma-ray spectra from celestial sources, such as the Crab Nebula, with single-day balloon flights (SMILE-II). To achieve this goal, a 100-times-larger detection area compared with that of SMILE-I is required without changing the weight or power consumption of the detector system. In addition, the event rate is also expected to dramatically increase during observation. Here, we describe both the concept and the performance of the new data-acquisition system with this (30 cm)3 ETCC to manage 100 times more data while satisfying the severe restrictions regarding the weight and power consumption imposed by a balloon-borne observation. In particular, to improve the detection efficiency of the fine tracks in the TPC from ∼10% to ∼100%, we introduce a new data-handling algorithm in the TPC. Therefore, for efficient management of such large amounts of data, we developed a data-acquisition system with parallel data flow.
AB - For MeV gamma-ray astronomy, we have developed an electron-tracking Compton camera (ETCC) as a MeV gamma-ray telescope capable of rejecting the radiation background and attaining the high sensitivity of near 1 mCrab in space. Our ETCC comprises a gaseous time-projection chamber (TPC) with a micro pattern gas detector for tracking recoil electrons and a position-sensitive scintillation camera for detecting scattered gamma rays. After the success of a first balloon experiment in 2006 with a small ETCC (using a 10×10×15 cm3 TPC) for measuring diffuse cosmic and atmospheric sub-MeV gamma rays (Sub-MeV gamma-ray Imaging Loaded-on-balloon Experiment I; SMILE-I), a (30 cm)3 medium-sized ETCC was developed to measure MeV gamma-ray spectra from celestial sources, such as the Crab Nebula, with single-day balloon flights (SMILE-II). To achieve this goal, a 100-times-larger detection area compared with that of SMILE-I is required without changing the weight or power consumption of the detector system. In addition, the event rate is also expected to dramatically increase during observation. Here, we describe both the concept and the performance of the new data-acquisition system with this (30 cm)3 ETCC to manage 100 times more data while satisfying the severe restrictions regarding the weight and power consumption imposed by a balloon-borne observation. In particular, to improve the detection efficiency of the fine tracks in the TPC from ∼10% to ∼100%, we introduce a new data-handling algorithm in the TPC. Therefore, for efficient management of such large amounts of data, we developed a data-acquisition system with parallel data flow.
KW - Compton camera
KW - ETCC
KW - Electron track
KW - MeV gamma-ray astronomy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84940046972&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84940046972&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.nima.2015.08.004
DO - 10.1016/j.nima.2015.08.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84940046972
SN - 0168-9002
VL - 800
SP - 40
EP - 50
JO - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
JF - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
ER -