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A new electronic readout for CsI-coated multiwire proportional chambers (MWPC), used as photon detectors in the COMPASS ring imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector, is described. A prototype system comprising more than 5000 channels has been built and tested in high-intensity beam conditions. It is based on the APV25-S1 analogue sampling chip, and replaces the GASSIPLEX chip readout used previously. The APV25 chip, although originally designed for Silicon microstrip detectors, is shown to perform well even with “slow” signals from an MWPC, maintaining a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 9. For every trigger the system reads out three consecutive amplitudes in time, thus allowing to extract information on both the signal amplitude and its timing. This information is used to reduce pile-up events in a high-rate environment. Prototype tests of the new readout electronics on a central RICH photocathode in nominal COMPASS beam conditions showed that the effective time window is reduced from more than 3 μ s for the GASSIPLEX to less than 400 ns for the APV25 chip. This leads to a significant improvement of the signal-to-background ratio (SBR) with respect to the original readout. A gain by a factor of 5–6 was experimentally verified in the very forward region of phase space, where pile-up due to the muon beam halo is most significant. Owing to its pipelined architecture, the new readout system also considerably reduces the dead time per event, thus allowing to make use of trigger rates exceeding 50 kHz .

A new readout system for CsI-coated MWPCs, used in the COMPASS RICH detector, has been proposed and tested in nominal high-rate conditions. It is based on the APV25-S1 analog sampling chip, and will replace the Gassiplex chip readout used up to now. The APV chip, originally designed for silicon microstrip detectors, is shown to perform well even with “slow” signals from a MWPC, keeping a signal-to-noise ratio of 9. For every trigger the system reads three consecutive in-time samples, thus allowing to extract information on the signal shape and its timing. The effective time window is reduced from ∼3 μs for the Gassiplex to below 400 ns for the APV25-S1 chip, reducing pile-up events at high particle rate. A significant improvement of the signal-to-background ratio by a factor 5–6 with respect to the original readout has been measured in the central region of the RICH detector. Due to its pipelined architecture, the new readout system also considerably reduces the dead time per event, allowing efficient data taking at higher trigger rate.