Development realization and test of an electronic data acquisition board for the NEMO experiment

The development, realization and test of an electronic data acquisition-board for the NEutrino Mediterranean Observatory (NEMO) collaboration are described. The collaboration is involved in R&D of a deep underwater km 3 scale Cherenkov neutrino telescope in the southern Ionian Sea. Thousands of Optical Modules (OM), spread over the entire volume and supported by a three-dimensional structure, constitute the sensitive part of the detector. Each OM is equipped by a Photo-Multiplier Tube (PMT) and an electronic circuit for data acquisition and transmission (DAQ board). This work tries to point out the possible benefits of a hybrid solution based on an analog Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) employed for the analog acquisition, and a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a digital programmable Integrated Circuit (IC) which manages the acquisition and the data transmission. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.