High Voltage Power Supply System and Front-End DAQ on FPGA/SoC for High Energy Particle Detectors

High energy physics experiments are based on complex detectors built with novel techniques frequently configured in multichannel arrays. This complexity creates the need for custom-made related instrumentation and methods not often found in commercial devices. The research activity presented in this thesis aims at developing a distributed High Voltage Power Supply System (HVPSS) network for hybrid Micro-pattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGD) like the ones used in the RICH-1 detector of the COMPASS experiment at CERN. The hardware design was tested in several conditions including test beams at CERN in the SPS H4 beam line and with nuclear sources in the RD51 laboratory. The modular design as well as the reconfigurable capacity of the SoC-FPGA opened the possibility of using the HVPSS as a tool for other experiments. With few modifications, the system was successfully tested as a front-end Data Acquisition (DAQ) system for Water Cherenkov Detectors (WCD) in the context of indirect measurements of cosmic rays. Additional algorithms were implemented for online particle classification based on pulse-shape discrimination techniques. This thesis describes the basic concepts of the physics behind these detectors, as well as the electronics used for high energy particle detectors. It is followed by the most relevant aspects of the design process for the HVPSS and its modifications leading to the DAQ for WCDs. A description of the specific techniques developed for these applications and the most significant tests and results obtained during the research process are also presented.