A versatile readout system for front-end ASICs with HLS-based hardware-accelerated processing capabilities

Abstract This paper presents a versatile readout system for particle detector front-end ASICs based on the AMD Zynq Ultrascale+ System-on-Chips. The system is suitable for both extensive laboratory characterization and for data acquisition at test beam facilities. Its software-level scripting of the test procedure reduces the firmware development effort, maximizing the system reusability among different DUTs. At the same time, the integration with High-Level Synthesis flows allows the deployment of real-time data processing algorithms in hardware, offloading the ARM processor. The system has been tested in different use cases, including the mixed-signal data acquisition from monolithic CMOS sensors for timing applications at test beam facilities and the readout of CMOS sensors for tracking and tomographic imaging.