The NectarCAM timing system

F., Bradascio,; Rueda, H.; Barrio, J. A.; Biteau, J.; Brun, F.; Champion, C.; Glicenstein, J. F.; Hoffmann, D.; Jean, P.; Lenain, J. P.; Louis, F.; Pérez, A.; Punch, M.; Sizun, P.; Sulanke, K. -H.; Tejedor, L. A.; Vallage, B.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2023.168398

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The trigger logic is performed by sending discriminated signals into a backplane and looking for a cluster in 7 neighboring pixels. The trigger are time-stamped with a custom board built on the top of a White Rabbit client [11].…”

Section: Nectarcammentioning

confidence: 99%

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Status of the Medium-Sized Telescopes for the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory

Bradascio¹

2023

Proceedings of 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2023)

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The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) is a next-generation ground-based gammaray observatory that will study the universe at very high energy using atmospheric Cherenkov light. CTAO will comprise over 67 telescopes of three different sizes, located in the northern and southern hemispheres. Among these, the Medium-Sized Telescope (MST) will play a crucial role in CTAO's observations, providing excellent sensitivity and angular resolution for gamma rays in the energy range of 100 GeV to 5 TeV. The MST is based on a modified single-mirror Davies-Cotton design, featuring a segmented mirror with a diameter of 12 meters, a total reflective surface of 88 square meters, and a focal length of 16 meters. It will cover an approximately 8-degree field of view and be equipped with two different cameras: NectarCAM and FlashCam, at the northern and southern CTAO sites, respectively. The MST's design is optimized for efficient observation of extended sources, including supernova remnants and pulsar wind nebulae, as well as the study of gamma-ray bursts and active galactic nuclei. Currently, the MST is in the midst of production and testing stages with the aim of being installed in 2025 for the CTAO Pathfinder project. In this project, one MST telescope will be deployed at each CTAO site to provide on-site experience with pre-production components. This approach facilitates cost and risk reduction before starting serial production. This contribution provides an overview of the current status and plans of the MST's construction at both the northern and southern CTAO sites, as well as details on the telescope and camera designs and their expected performance.

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Section: Nectarcammentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The results align with the expected Poissonian statistical limits, and the dynamic range covers 4 decades. Further details regarding the NectarCAM camera test results can be found in [11][12][13][14]. The camera's finalization is underway, and it is scheduled to be shipped to the Pathfinder site of CTAN in 2024.…”

Section: Nectarcammentioning

confidence: 99%

Status of the Medium-Sized Telescopes for the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory

Bradascio¹

2023

Proceedings of 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2023)

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“…We conducted measurements to determine the timing precision of the pixels in the 10 FEBv6, following the procedure outlined in [8]. By employing a laser source with a frequency of 1 kHz and varying pulsed energies ranging from 8 pJ to 20 pJ, we measured the position of the maximum sample within the 60 ns readout window (referred to as Time of Maximum or TOM) for each photon pulse in every pixel.…”

Section: Pixel Timing Precisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The TOM values were obtained using the two methods described in [8]. To estimate the systematic timing uncertainty for each pixel, we calculated the root mean square (RMS) of the TOM distributions, taking into account the contribution of the random starting time of the NECTAr chip readout.…”

Section: Pixel Timing Precisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Performances of an upgraded front-end-board for the NectarCAM camera

Bradascio¹,

Brun²,

Cangemi³

et al. 2023

Proceedings of 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2023)

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The Front-End Board (FEB) is a key component of the NectarCAM camera, which has been developed for the Medium-Sized-Telescopes (MST) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO). The FEB is responsible for reading and converting the signals from the camera's photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) into digital data, as well as generating module level trigger signals. This contribution provides an overview of the design and performances of a new version of the FEB that utilizes an improved version of the NECTAr chip. The NECTAr chip includes a switched capacitor array for sampling signals at 1 GHz, and a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for digitizing each sample when the trigger signal is received. The integration of this advanced NECTAr chip significantly reduces the deadtime of NectarCAM by an order of magnitude as compared to the previous version. This contribution also presents the results of laboratory testing of the new FEB, including measurements of timing performance, linearity, dynamic range, and deadtime.

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