EUROGAM VXI Cards
The NPG has designed VXI cards for nuclear physics for many years.
During 1992-1993 Eurogam Phase I was the first nuclear physics apparatus to make large scale use of the VXI (VME eXtensions for Instrumentation) card format for electronics and data acquisition. Three VXI cards were designed by the NPG for this first phase of Eurogam.
For Eurogam Phase II, multi element "Clover" detectors containing 4 Ge crystals with a 16 BGO crystal escape suppression shield were added to the array. In addition to the Phase I cards which are still in use, the NPG designed dedicated electronics for this new detector type.
Eurogam VXI cards designed by the NPG
- Phase I
- Master Trigger
- Dedicated VXI Resource Manager
- NIM ADC control/readout
- Phase II
- Clover card
The Eurogam Clover VXI card
The Clover VXI card contains 5 Ge spectroscopy channels (4 plus 1 spare) and one BGO channel. Each Ge channel measures Ge energy in 2 ranges each with 13 bit resolution: 0-4MeV (0.5keV/channel with the Eurogam detectors), and a coarser 0-20MeV range (giving 2.5keV/channel resolution for Eurogam). Ge timing is measured by 2 TACs, the first measures peaking time and the second measures when the channel fires relative to a global timing reference (the first level trigger). The BGO channel combines the inputs from all the crystals and measures timing relative to a global reference and in addition measures sum energy. A hit pattern is compiled from the BGO and the Ge channels. The card format is VXI D size (340mm deep x 367mm high).
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