arXiv · 2604.25835
Embedded underwater front-end electronics for the 3-inch photomultipliers in the JUNO experiment
Abstract
The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a 20-kton liquid scintillator-based, low-radioactivity, multi-purpose neutrino detector located 693 meters (1800 m.w.e.) underground in the Guangdong province, China. To detect scintillation light produced in the target, the detector is equipped with 17,612 20-inch photomultipliers (PMTs), forming the Large PMT system (LPMT). In addition, 25,600 3-inch photomultipliers (the Small Photomultiplier System or SPMT) are deployed in the gaps between the LPMTs. This paper presents the design and performance of the underwater front-end electronics developed for the SPMT system. It details the individual electronics boards and their key components, the inter-board interfaces, the system-level design, and the firmware architecture that supports data acquisition and control. It also outlines mechanical and thermal integration, board validation procedures, and system performance metrics. The readout chain includes digitization of 128 PMT channels per unit, synchronized time-stamping, charge measurement, event packaging, and bandwidth management. Comprehensive validation confirms the system's readiness to meet JUNO's stringent physics goals. The underwater electronics achieve noise levels as low as 0.04 photoelectrons with minimal crosstalk (below 0.4%) and a bandwidth of 57 MB/s, ensuring reliable single photo-electron detection and operation under high-rate conditions. The SPMT system has now been fully integrated and installed in JUNO. Its commissioning and physics performance will be reported in a future publication.
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Cédric Cerna, Miao He, Xiaoshan Jiang, Juan Pedro Ochoa-Ricoux, Frédéric Perrot, Angel Abusleme, Thomas Adam, Fengpeng An, Costas Andreopoulos, Giuseppe Andronico, João Pedro Athayde Marcondes de André, Nikolay Anfimov, Vito Antonelli, Tatiana Antoshkina, Didier Auguste, Nikita Balashov, Andrea Barresi, Davide Basilico, Eric Baussan, Marco Beretta, Antonio Bergnoli, Nikita Bessonov, Daniel Bick, Lukas Bieger, Svetlana Biktemerova, Thilo Birkenfeld, Simon Blyth, Manuel Boehles, Anastasia Bolshakova, Mathieu Bongrand, Clément Bordereau, Matteo Borghesi, Dominique Breton, Augusto Brigatti, Riccardo Brugnera, Riccardo Bruno, Antonio Budano, Jose Busto, Marcel Büchner, Anatael Cabrera, Barbara Caccianiga, Hao Cai, Xiao Cai, Yi-zhou Cai, Stéphane Callier, Antonio Cammi, Augustin Campeny, Guofu Cao, Jun Cao, Yaoqi Cao, Rossella Caruso, Vanessa Cerrone, Jinfan Chang, Yun Chang, Tim Charisse, Chao Chen, Haotian Chen, Jiahui Chen, Jian Chen, Jing Chen, Junyou Chen, Pingping Chen, Shaomin Chen, Shiqiang Chen, Yixue Chen, Yu Chen, Ze Chen, Zhangming Chen, Zhiyuan Chen, Jie Cheng, Yaping Cheng, Yu Chin Cheng, Alexander Chepurnov, Alexey Chetverikov, Davide Chiesa, Pietro Chimenti, Ziliang Chu, Artem Chukanov, Gérard Claverie, Catia Clementi, Barbara Clerbaux, Claudio Coletta, Chenyang Cui, Luis Delgadillo Franco, Ziyan Deng, Xiaoyu Ding, Xuefeng Ding, Yayun Ding, Sergey Dmitrievsky, Dmitry Dolzhikov, Chuanshi Dong, Haojie Dong, Jianmeng Dong, Evgeny Doroshkevich, Marcos Dracos, Frédéric Druillole, Ran Du, Shuxian Du, Katherine Dugas, Stefano Dusini. 2026-06-01. Embedded underwater front-end electronics for the 3-inch photomultipliers in the JUNO experiment. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.25835
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