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arXiv · 2509.00725

Signal processing and data acquisition system for the BTO detectors onboard COSI

Shunsaku Nagasawa·Tadayuki Takahashi·Kazuhiro Nakazawa·Hannah Gulick·Claire Chen·Hiroki Yoneda·Keigo Okuma·Matt Dexter·Josh Forgione·Nihal Gulati·Andrew Ji·Kaylie Ching·Isabel Schmidtke·Sarah Jauregui·Eric Yang·Andreas Zoglauer·Juan Carlos Martinez Oliveros·John Tomsick
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Abstract

The energy range from a few hundred keV to a few MeV includes important probes such as nuclear gamma-rays and the 511 keV annihilation line. However, compared to X-rays and GeV/TeV gamma-rays, this range suffers from lower sensitivity by orders of magnitude. The upcoming NASA SMEX satellite mission Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI), scheduled for launch in 2027, is expected to break through this limitation with its Compton telescope utilizing a germanium semiconductor detector, covering the 0.2-5 MeV energy range. In addition to the main instrument, two Background and Transient Observer (BTO) detectors will be installed on COSI. The detectors are NaI(Tl) scintillators coupled with SiPMs, and they are being developed as a student collaboration project. BTO aims to 1) measure background radiation in orbit to maximize COSI's sensitivity and 2) detect GRBs and other gamma-ray transients. For this purpose, it is required to cover the lower-energy range from 30 keV to 2 MeV with < 20% FWHM energy resolution. In addition, large signals and afterglow generated by heavy ions penetrating the NaI(Tl) crystal should be appropriately handled. To address these requirements, we have developed a compact signal processing and data acquisition system comprised of two main components: an analog board and a digital board. The analog board amplifies signals from the SiPM, generates triggers, and performs AD conversion. The digital board features a Microchip SAMV71 microcontroller, and we developed the software to control the analog board, read ADC data via SPI interface, add timestamps, and buffer event data. Through this development, we achieved the required wide bandpass and an energy resolution of 10% FWHM at 662 keV with a processing time of 20 us per event. We also implemented veto signal generation for large signals using a discriminator and an onboard detection algorithm for transient events.

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Shunsaku Nagasawa, Tadayuki Takahashi, Kazuhiro Nakazawa, Hannah Gulick, Claire Chen, Hiroki Yoneda, Keigo Okuma, Matt Dexter, Josh Forgione, Nihal Gulati, Andrew Ji, Kaylie Ching, Isabel Schmidtke, Sarah Jauregui, Eric Yang, Andreas Zoglauer, Juan Carlos Martinez Oliveros, John Tomsick. 2025-08-31. Signal processing and data acquisition system for the BTO detectors onboard COSI. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3063967

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