GigaHertz Analogue Memories in ground-based gamma-ray astronomy

The ARS0 (“Analogue Ring Sampler”) GigaHertz Analogue Memory was developed for the ANTARES experiment by DAPNIA-SEI. Its application for an imaging Cherenkov camera is considered. This chip contains five analogue ring buffers with 128 cells each, with sampling on the nanosecond time-scale. After the arrival of a trigger signal, the analogue data may be read out at a slower rate, up to several hundred microseconds later. These characteristics allow a fully-integrated, compact imaging camera to be built based on this circuit. Results of tests on prototype circuit boards, for a possible application to the HESS project, are presented.