PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF SIGNAL CONDITIONING BOARDS AND SIMULATION OF THE IMPACT OF ELECTRONICS NOISE ON THE DEAP-3600 DARK MATTER DETECTOR

• Author / Creator

  Chouinard, Rhys Timon

• The Dark matter Experiment with Argon and Pulse shape discrimination
  (DEAP-3600) aims to detect the interactions of Weakly Interacting Massive
  Particles colliding with the nuclei of argon atoms. As particles interact with
  the argon in the DEAP-3600 vessel, scintillation light is emitted and detected
  by 255 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) surrounding the target volume. Photons
  reaching the PMTs are converted into electrical pulses and sent along a data
  processing chain. The electronics are designed to maximise the detection of individual and multiple photon pulses, which is paramount for accurate particle
  identification. The Signal Conditioning Boards (SCBs) are electrical devices
  designed for DEAP-3600 to optimise single photoelectron detection, and maximise the signal to noise ratio. Versions of the SCBs were tested and improved
  to ensure the necessary signal to noise ratio was obtained. The impact of electronics noise on detector performance was studied.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Dark matter
  • particle astrophysics
  • DEAP-3600
  • simulation
  • Signal Conditioning Boards

• Graduation date

  Spring 2013

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3R98T

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.