Characterization of a DAQ system for the readout of a SiPM based shashlik calorimeter

Silicon PhotoMultipliers (SiPMs) are a recently developed type of silicon photodetector characterized by high gain and insensitivity to magnetic fields, which make them a suitable detector for the next generation high energy and space physics experiments. This paper presents the performance of a readout system for SiPMs based on the MAROC3 ASIC. The ASIC consists of 64 channels working in parallel, each one with a variable gain pre-amplifier, a tunable slow shaper with a sample & hold circuit for the analog readout and a tunable fast shaper for the digital one. In the tests described in this paper, only the analog part of the ASIC has been used. A frontend board based on the MAROC3 ASIC has been tested at CERN coupled to a scintillator-lead shashlik calorimeter, readout with 36 large area SiPMs. The performance of the system has been characterized in terms of linearity and energy resolution on the CERN PS-T9 and SPS-H2 beamlines, using different configurations of the ASIC parameters.