A5801

The A5801 is a 128-channel ADC board belonging to the CAEN EASY (Embedded Assembly SYstem) family, designed to operate reliably in magnetic fields and moderate radiation environments. Built on CAEN’s patented rad-tolerant and magnetic-field-resistant technology, originally developed for the main LHC experiments, the A5801 can be installed directly in the hostile area, close to detectors and front-end electronics.

The board provides 128 differential input channels with a 0–10 V range and 0.2 mV resolution (LSB). All channels are sampled at 1 kHz, and the module returns the mean value averaged over a programmable number of samples. An internal 50 Hz timer, resettable via the ISEL input on the SYx527 front panel, provides a time reference for acquired data.

A built-in peak detection mode is triggered whenever the input voltage exceeds a programmable threshold. Detection can be configured on an individual channel basis or per group, where the mean value of each 16-channel group is compared with the threshold of the group’s first channel. When a peak is detected, the module acquires 250 samples and reports the peak value, its relative position within the acquisition window, the number of over-threshold samples, and a time stamp referenced to the internal 50 Hz clock. In group mode, these values are returned for all 16 channels of the group.

Like all EASY boards, the A5801 is remotely controlled from the control room through the R6060C Branch Controller, which can manage up to six EASY crates and handles each board channel as one of its own. Configuration of the crate layout is performed with the dedicated CAEN software tools.