Front-End Electronic System For Large Area Photomultipliers Readout

We developed a front-end electronic system for large area photomultipliers. Connection to the PMT can be made by a single cable, useful to minimize cabling in a underwater detector. The cabling is done in the rear part of the crate to permit easy access to the electronic boards. A front-end board houses 8 channels each one is composed by a preamplifier and a leading edge discriminator. Up to 8 front-end boards can be housed in a crate, giving a modularity of 64 channels. A controller board is needed to setup and monitor the front-end parameters. This board implements also scalers and time to digital converters with time over threshold capability. A standard gigabit ethernet line is used for communication with the outside world. Details on the design and specification of the system is reported together some preliminary measurements done with the prototypes now under test in laboratory.