arXiv subjects

Adrian Herkert

Publications and source records attributed to Adrian Herkert.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Constellation: The Autonomous Control and Data Acquisition System for Dynamic Experimental Setups

The operation of instruments and detectors in laboratory or beamline environments presents a complex challenge, requiring stable operation of multiple concurrent devices, often controlled by separate hardware and software solutions. These environments frequently undergo modifications, such as the inclusion of different auxiliary devices depending on the experiment or facility, adding further complexity. The successful management of such dynamic configurations demands a flexible and robust system capable of controlling data acquisition, monitoring experimental setups, enabling seamless reconfiguration, and integrating new devices with limited effort. This paper presents Constellation, a flexible and network-distributed control and data acquisition software framework tailored to laboratory and beamline environments, that addresses the limitations of existing solutions. The framework is designed with a focus on extensibility, providing a streamlined interface for instrument integration. It supports efficient system setup via network discovery mechanisms, promotes stability through autonomous operational features, and provides comprehensive documentation and supporting tools for operators and application developers such as controllers and logging interfaces. At the core of the architectural design is the autonomy of the individual components, called satellites, which can make independent decisions about their operation and communicate these decisions to other components. This paper introduces the design principles and framework architecture of Constellation, presents the available graphical user interfaces, shares insights from initial successful deployments, and provides an outlook on future developments and applications.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2025

TelePix2: Full scale fast region of interest trigger and timing for the EUDET-style telescopes at the DESY II Test Beam Facility

With increasing demands by future and current upgrades of particle physics experiments on rate capabilities and time resolution, the requirements on test beams are also increasing. The current infrastructure at the DESY II test beam facility includes particle tracking telescopes with long integration times, no additional timing but excellent spatial resolution. This results in readouts with multiple particles per trigger, causing ambiguities in tracking and assigning particles to triggers. Also, it is likely not to trigger on particles that pass through a small device under test, leading to inefficient data taking. These issues can be solved by adding TelePix2 as a timing and flexible region of interest trigger layer. TelePix2 is a full scale HV-CMOS chip based on the successful small scale prototype TelePix. The DAQ system and the sensors performance featuring efficiencies above 99 % and a time resolution of 3.844(2) ns are presented. The integration into EUDAQ2 and the AIDA-TLU to seamlessly work in the test beam environment as well as into the analysis chain is described. First successful use cases are highlighted to conclude that TelePix2 is a well-suited timing and trigger layer for test beams

hep-ex↗

arXiv2024

electronCT -- An Imaging Technique Using Very-high Energy Electrons

The electronCT technique is an imaging method based on the multiple Coulomb scattering of relativistic electrons and has potential applications in medical and industrial imaging. It utilizes a pencil beam of electrons in the very high energy electron (VHEE, 50-250 MeV) range and a single detection layer for the determination of the beam profile. The technique constitutes a projectional, two-dimensional imaging method and thus also qualifies for the tomographic reconstruction of samples. Given the simplicity of the technical setup and its location behind the sample, the electronCT technique has potential synergies with VHEE radiotherapy, making use of the same electron source for both treatment and diagnostics and thus being a candidate for in-situ imaging and patient localization. At the same time, several technical challenges arise from the measurement technique when applied for the imaging of living beings. Measurements performed at the ARES linear particle accelerator at an electron energy of 155 MeV using a mouse phantom and a Timepix3 silicon pixel detector assembly demonstrate the feasibility of this technique. Both projectional and tomographic reconstructions are presented and the potential and limits of the technology are discussed.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2023

ADENIUM -- A demonstrator for a next-generation beam telescope at DESY

High-resolution beam telescopes for charged particle tracking are one of the most important and equally demanding infrastructure items at test beam facilities. The main purpose of beam telescopes is to provide precise reference track information of beam particles to measure the performance of a device under test (DUT). In this report the development of the ADENIUM beam telescope (ALPIDE sensor based DESY Next test beam Instrument) as a demonstrator and prototype for a next-generation beam telescope is presented. The ADENIUM beam telescope features up to six pixelated reference planes framed by plastic scintillators for triggering. ADENIUM is capable of replacing the currently used EUDET-type beam telescopes without impacting existing DUT implementations due to the integration of the telescope DAQ into EUDAQ2. In this report the concept and design of the ADENIUM telescope as well as its performance are discussed. The telescope's pointing resolution is determined in different configurations. For an optimal setup at an momentum of 5.6 GeV with an ALPIDE as DUT, a resolution better than 3 um has been extracted. No rate limitations have been observed at the DESY II test beam.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2022

TelePix -- A fast region of interest trigger and timing layer for the EUDET Telescopes

Test beam facilities are essential to study the response of novel detectors to particles. At the DESY II Test Beam facility, users can test their detectors with an electron beam with a momentum from 1-6 GeV. To track the beam particles, EUDET-style telescopes are provided in each beam area. They provide excellent spatial resolution, but the time resolution is limited by the rolling shutter architecture to a precision of approximately 230 $μ$s. Since the demand on particle rates -- and hence track multiplicities -- is increasing timing is becoming more relevant. DESY foresees several upgrades of the telescopes. TelePix is an upgrade project to provide track timestamping with a precision of better than 5 ns and a configurable region of interest to trigger the telescope readout. Small scale prototypes have been characterised in laboratory and test beam measurements. Laboratory tests with an injection corresponding to 2300 electrons show a S/N of above 20. Test beam characterization shows efficiencies of above 99% over a threshold range of more than 100 mV and time resolutions of 2.4 ns at low noise rates.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

Electrical characterization of AMS aH18 HV-CMOS after neutrons and protons irradiation

In view of the tracking detector application to the ATLAS High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) upgrade, we have developed a new generation of High Voltage CMOS (HV-CMOS) monolithic pixel-sensor prototypes featuring the AMS aH18 (180 nm) commercial CMOS technology. By fully integrating both analog and digital readout-circuitry on the same particle-detecting substrate, current challenges of hybrid sensor technologies, i.e., larger readout input-capacitance, lower production-yield, and higher production and integration cost, can be downscaled. The large electrode design using high-resistivity substrates actively helps to mitigate the charge-trapping effects, making these chips radiation hard. The surface and bulk damage induced in high irradiation environment change the effective doping concentration of the device, which modulates high electric fields as the reverse-bias voltage increases. This effect can cause high leakage current and premature electrical breakdown, driven by impact ionization. In order to assess the characteristics of heavily irradiated samples, we have carried out dedicated campaigns on ATLASPix1 chips that included irradiations of neutrons and protons, made at different facilities. Here, we report on the electrical characterization of the irradiated samples at different ambient conditions, also in comparison to their pre-irradiation properties. Results demonstrate that hadron irradiated devices can be safely operated at a voltage high enough to allow for high efficiency, up to the fluence of 2E15 neq/cm2, beyond the radiation levels (TID and NIEL) expected in the outermost pixel layers of the new ATLAS tracker for HL-LHC.

physics.ins-det↗