The technical details of the electronic chip DRS4 can be explained using dominoes: After all, the name DRS stands for Domino Ring Sampler. Each detector supplies a constant electrical signal to the chip. If a particle hits the detector, this signal curve displays a corresponding peak. The task of the chip and the related circuit board is to determine the precise temporal position of that peak.
For this purpose, the output of each detector is broken down continuously in the chip into 1,024 time intervals. The corresponding measurement points are written to 1,024 memory cells on the chip. From a technical perspective, these memory cells are capacitors, but for simplicity one can imagine 1,024 little buckets into which the information is filled. In order to fill each bucket, a corresponding switch has to be actuated.
The problem is the data flood of the experiment, which is why these buckets have to be filled extremely quickly. This is why the chip has a virtual row of dominoes. Each falling domino uses a switch to fill a bucket and triggers the next domino at the same time, which in turn actuates the corresponding switch and so on. In addition, the dominoes are arranged in a circle. This means that all 1,024 buckets are filled over and over again from the beginning, so their information is updated in a continuous loop. This explains the term Ring Sampler in the chip’s name.
If an electron or light particle now hits the detector, the domino effect only needs to be stopped in order for the signal of the detector to be distributed and stored to the buckets. There is scarcely any faster method available.
The information can then be read more slowly and at leisure from these buckets. The measurement curve distributed to the 1,024 buckets, i.e. comprising 1,024 storage points, is transmitted to the electrical circuit board on which the chip is located.
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