MRI: Acquisition of Digital Data Acquisition System for experiments in Nuclear Science

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The acquisition and implementation of a 680-channel Digital DataAcquisition System (DDAS) for the Segmented Germanium Array (SeGA) atthe National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory's (NSCL) allows theidentification of positions of interactions for gamma-rays within SeGAdetector crystals by pulse shape analysis of digitized signals. Spatialresolution in the detectors with the DDAS implemented will be at leastby a factor of two better than that achievable with the current analogelectronics.The SeGA photon spectrometer is a $2M instrument commissioned in 2001,and is currently the world's largest operational highly-segmentedhigh-purity germanium detector array for gamma-ray spectroscopy withfast exotic beams. SeGA is central to the research of five facultymembers, their postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate studentsat Michigan State University and available to all users of the NSCL. Roughly half of all experiments approved by the NSCL's external ProgramAdvisory Committee (PAC) require SeGA for gamma-ray detection. Participating students will be exposed to the novel and potentapplications of the state-of-the-art digital technology and will have anopportunity to develop skills in signal processing, data analysis andcomputer programming.With the proposed DDAS, the SeGA array will be the world's first digitalphoton spectrometer for fast exotic beam spectroscopy, ahead of severalother efforts currently under consideration, preserving the currentworld-leading role of the NSCL's photon spectroscopy program.