Present status of the FARCOS detection system

Few years ago we proposed a novel detection system – named FARCOS (Femtoscopy ARray for COrrelations and Spectroscopy) – to target different open cases in nuclear physics. The basic cluster unit of the FARCOS array is a telescope structure with an active area of 6.4 × 6.4 cm2 composed of three detection stages. The first two detection layers are DC-coupled Double-Sided Silicon Strip Detectors (DSSSDs), 300 μm thick and 1500 μm thick, featuring 32 × 32 orthogonal strips. The third stage, acting as calorimeter, is composed of four truncated pyramids of CsI(Tl) crystals with an active area of 3.2 × 3.2 cm2 and an absorption length of 6 cm arranged in window configuration. The final system will be a modular assembly of 20 telescopes. A key feature of FARCOS is the identification of the particles stopping even in the first detection layer, relying on pulse shape analysis techniques. The FARCOS frontend electronics features a full scale energy range up to 2 GeV with 5 different selectable ranges and an energy resolution down to 10 keV FWHM with a power budget of about 10 mW/channel in the case of the lower full scale energy range. Its core is a custom multichannel charge preamplifier VLSI chip. The system performance has been extensively qualified on few workhorses in view of the assembly of the final telescopes foreseen for 2018.