NBrick

Overview

The CAEN Mod.NBrick is a rackmount system composed of three boards:

• R1443C: Charge Sensitive Preamplifier specifically designed for 3He/BF₃ tubes (32-ch independent HV).
• R5560C: 32 channels 14-bit 125 MS/s Pulse Processor.
• R8033: High Voltage board (Mod. R8033DP: 16-ch +4kV/3mA).

The three units combined together build a complete readout system for neutron detection applications,  allowing for the readout of up to 16 position-sensing 3He/BF3 tubes.

It provides High Voltage up to 4 kV for 3He/BF3 tubes  bias and a proper preamplification stage with a total gain of 0.85 to 19 V/pC and sensitivity 2 mV/fC. Thanks to the architecture based on Flash ADC, the Pulse Processor can sustain event rates up to 100 kcps per channel. The firmware onboard performs Resistive Charge Division for position reconstruction and outputs energy/timing data.

CAEN provides the Thanos DAQ software, that allows the user to remotely manage the High Voltage and Digitizers, to acquire waveforms, energy spectra, ToF spectra, and to perform position reconstruction. The figures below show some examples of measurements performed using 4 3He tubes and a 252 Cf source. The emitted neutrons were moderated by using a polyethylene shielding, therefore thermal neutrons were detected.