725 and 730 are 2 families of Flash ADC Waveform Digitizers:


They are available in three form factors: VME (16 input channels), NIM (8 input channels) and Desktop (8 input channels).

The acquisition capabilities of x725-x730 take advantage of the multi-buffer organization of the memories. The data stream is continuously written in a circular memory buffer. When the trigger occurs, the digitizer writes further samples for the post trigger and freezes the buffer that can be read by one of the provided readout links. The acquisition can continue without any dead time in a new buffer.

Two memory sizes are available:


730 and 725 families supports multi-board synchronization, so all ADCs can be synchronized to a common clock source and ensuring Trigger Time Tag alignment. Once synchronized, all data will be aligned and coherent across multiple digitizer boards.

A common acquisition trigger signal can be provided externally via the front panel Trigger Input connector or via software. The board can also self-trigger the acquisition thanks to a trigger threshold adjustable for each channel. The trigger from one board can be propagated to the other boards through the front panel Trigger Output connector

725, 730 and 724 digitizers running DPP-PHA firmware become multichannel data acquisition systems for nuclear physics or other applications requiring radiation detection. The digitizers accept signals directly from Charge Sensitive Preamplifiers or photomultiplier and implement a digital replacement of Shaping Amplifier and Peak Sensing ADC (Multi-Channel Analyzer).

The 720, 725, 730 and 751 series digitizers running DPP-PSD firmware become multichannel data acquisition systems for nuclear physics or other applications requiring radiation detection. The digitizers accept signals directly from the detector and implement a digital replacement of Dual Gate QDC, Discriminator and Gate Generator.

The Zero Length Encoding (DPP-ZLEplus) Firmware allows the user to transfer the digitized waveforms in compressed mode, performing an enhanced Zero Suppression algorithm on the input signals.

DPP-ZLE continuously calculates the baseline of the input signals and, whenever an external trigger occurs, it searches for the significant input pulses within an user-defined Acquisition window. An input pulse is considered significant if it either exceeds an Upper Threshold or falls below a Lower Threshold referred either to the calculated baseline or absolute values.

The digitizer runs on real time:
Input signal baseline calculation channel by channel
Acquisition window generation whenever an external trigger occurs
Enhanced Zero Suppression of input signals within the Acquisition window
Storage of just the pulses that cross user defined Upper or Lower Thresholds
Programmable Look Back and Look Ahead windows
Provides also timing information (trigger time stamps)

Some typical applications:
Read out of a large number of detectors following a global trigger
Application requiring an effective data reduction

The DPP-DAW firmware allows the user to acquire data from each channel independently and to adapt the acquisition window to the real pulse duration (over-threshold). Samples are identified when their distance from the baseline is larger than a programmable threshold. After the minimum record length is reached, the DPP-DAW firmware acquires the input samples until they return below the threshold level for a programmable number of samples. The acquisition can be vetoed/gated with an external signal on TRG-IN front panel connector.
The DPP-DAW firmware has many advantages, like the possibility to acquire each channel independently and the possibility to adjust the record length to each event individually. This ensure an optimization of the data transfer, since only the "relevant" samples are transmitted, while channels with no data are not transferred at all.

In a brand new framework, CAENScope software implements the features of an easy-to-use Signal Inspection Software to be used with CAEN digitizers running the "Default Firmware".

CAENScope user friendly interface presents different sections to easily manage the digitizer configuration and plot the waveforms. Once connected, the program retrieves the digitizer information.

Different parameters can be set for the channels, the trigger and the trace visualization (up to 12 traces can be simultaneously plotted). Signals are recordable to files in two different formats: Binary (SQLite db) and Text (XML). It is also possible to save and restore the program settings.

WaveDump is a basic console application, with no graphics, supporting digitizers running the Waveform Recording Firmware. It allows the user to program a single board (according to a text configuration file containing a list of parameters and instructions), to start/stop the acquisition, read the data, display the readout and trigger rate, apply some postprocessing (e.g. FFT and amplitude histogram), save data to a file and also plot the waveforms using Gnuplot.

Starting with this demo is strongly recommended to all those users willing to write the software on their own. Source files and the VS project are included for developers.

USB
An USB 2.0 link is provided in NIM and Desktop form factors for an easy data readout
VME Digitizer can be controlled via USB using the CAEN V1718 VME-USB2.0 Bridge

Optical Link
An Optical link is provided in any form factor for high performance data readout through CAEN proprietary daisy-chainable CONET communication protocol.
it is possible to connect up to 8/32 ADC modules to a single Optical Link Controller (Mod. A2818/A3818)

Digital I/O
Digital I/Os are provided in VME boards that can be used for individual trigger propagation to external trigger logic. This feature makes VME form factor ideal to scale up the acquisition channels where a global trigger generation is mandatory.