CNAO
CNAO
( Centro Nazionale Terapia Adronica is a new facility under
construction in Pavia ( Italy ) for cancer treatments with hadron
beams (Hadrontherapy). Hadrontherapy makes use of hadron beams (
protons, neutrons or carbon ions ) in order to destroy tumors while
sparing healthy tissues. The advantage of hadron beams in comparison
with photons or electrons is that they release most of their energy
at the end of the energy loss curve ( the Bragg's peak ). It is
therefore possible to spare tissues and organs in front of and ( even
more ) behind the tumor.
I
have designed an ASIC for the readout of pixel and strip gas
detectors used for beam calibration and monitoring. Several version
of the ASIC have been already designed and used since 1996. Here is a
list of the versions and their features :
Tera
v1.0 (1996) : a CMOS 1.2 µm technology
test chip with 14 channels, asynchronous logic and 20 bits output.
Tera
v2.0 (1997) : the complete 64 channel ASIC redesigned in CMOS 0.8 µm
technology with 20 bits output.
Tera
v2.1 (1998) : same as v2.0, apart from the 16 bits output. It has
been used for the equipment of the “Magic Cube”
detector, used for beam calibration.
Tera
v3.0 (1999) : redesign of the v2.0 with clocked comparator and logic
in order to obtain an higher resolution.
Tera
v3.1 (2000): bug corrected version of v3.0. It
is used for the equipment of strip gas detector used for CATANA
Beam Monitor System.
Tera
v3.2 (2001,2004) : mass
production of the v3.1 ( ~7000 chips ),
it
is used for the equipment of the pixel and strip gas detector, used
for CPO
and CNAO
Beam Monitor System.
Tera
v4.0 (2004): redesign in CMOS 0.35 µm technology with bipolar
input capability, higher speed and better resolution.
Terva
v4.1 (2007): bug correction of the v4.0.
In
the environment of the EU collaboration program Maestro, the v3.2 has
been used by a private company (Scanditronix-Wellhofer) for a
commercial product ( the MatriXX ).
Links
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Last modification : May 6, 2009