Speaker
Description
Modern space-based UV and Cherenkov telescopes require highly integrated electronic systems capable of acquiring signals from large SiPM focal surfaces while ensuring low power consumption, high reliability, and seamless integration with the global telescope data acquisition. Within the SiSMUV project, we have developed a modular front-end electronics architecture specifically tailored to the readout, control, and synchronization of SiPM detector units in distributed focal surface systems.
Each module combines a SiPM array with a custom ASIC-based analog front-end and a digital processing layer implemented on FPGA. The analog stage, based on the RADIOROC ASIC, provides per-channel bias adjustment, dual-gain charge readout, and precise timing and amplitude discrimination, enabling stable operation from the single-photoelectron regime up to large signal amplitudes. The digital back-end is implemented on a Xilinx Artix FPGA and handles slow control, configuration of the front-end parameters, calibration and monitoring tasks, local trigger generation, and event formatting. Communication with the higher-level readout system is performed through a scalable digital interface designed to support large numbers of synchronized modules distributed over curved focal surfaces.
The complete readout chain has been validated through laboratory tests using pulsed laser sources and calibrated optical setups, demonstrating stable performance, reproducible calibration, and robust operation.