The DRS VME board: a low power digitizing system in the GHz range

We present a waveform digitizing system based on the Domino Sampling Chip and its implementation in a Mezzanine Card. This system is suitable for experiments in which the waveform sampling of high-speed PMT signals is crucial. The principle of operation, the test and the performance of the system are described. The Domino ring capacitors are sampling input signals up to a maximum frequency of 4.5 GHz and are locked to an external low frequency clock. The analog waveform is stored in capacitive sampling cells fabricated in a 0.25 mu m CMOS process and read out at 40 MHz with an external 12 bit flash ADC. The design is optimized for a multi-channel VME board with parallel sampling of 16 input channels upon a common trigger pulse.