G. Puehlhofer

FlashCam: a fully-digital camera for the medium-sized telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The FlashCam group is currently preparing photomultiplier-tube based cameras proposed for the medium-sized telescopes (MST) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). The cameras are designed around the FlashCam readout concept which is the first fully-digital readout system for Cherenkov cameras, based on commercial FADCs and FPGAs as key components for the front-end electronics modules and a high performance camera server as back-end. This contribution describes the progress of the full-scale FlashCam camera prototype currently under construction, as well as performance results also obtained with earlier demonstrator setups. Plans towards the production and implementation of FlashCams on site are also briefly presented.

H.E.S.S. highlights

The H.E.S.S. collaboration continues to run an array of five Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes to observe the Southern sky in very high energy gamma-rays. In this presentation, recent highlight results obtained with H.E.S.S. are briefly reviewed, with references to the relevant publications.

Readout electronics testing during mass production of FlashCam cameras for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the future observatory for ground-based TeV gamma-ray astronomy. At two sites, one in the northern and one in the southern hemisphere, CTA will feature about one hundred telescopes of different size classes in order to significantly improve the sensitivity and energy range with respect to current Cherenkov facilities. FlashCam is a camera system proposed for the medium-sized telescopes of CTA that implements a fully-digital readout and trigger processing, which allows the reconfiguration of the trigger algorithm and the signal shaping. For the mass production of a substantial number of FlashCam cameras, efficient and reliable testing routines have been developed. In this contribution, the concept and the procedures for large-scale testing of the readout electronics are outlined. Additionally, a fast multi-channel pulse generator specifically designed for the functional testing of FlashCam FADC modules setup is presented.