Design and construction of the front-end electronics data acquisitions for the SLD CRID

The authors describe the front-end electronics for the Cerenkov Ring Imaging Detector (CRID) of the SLD (Stanford Large Detector) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The design philosophy and implementation are discussed with emphasis on the low-noise hybrid amplifiers, signal processing, and data acquisition electronics. The system receives signals from a highly efficient single-photoelectron detector. These signals are shaped and amplified before being stored in an analog memory and processed by a digitizing system. The data from several analog-to-digital converters are multiplexed and transmitted via fiber optics to the SLD FASTBUS system. The authors highlight the technologies used as well as the space, power-dissipation, and environmental constraints imposed on the system