Level 1 Trigger

The Level 1 Trigger (L1 Trigger) for SuperCDMS SNOLAB must identify energy-deposition events within our detectors in real time. It must achieve high efficiency for very low-energy events while maintaining a very low rate of false positives caused by electronics noise.

The L1 Trigger is implemented as FPGA firmware which will run on the Detector Control and Readout Card (DCRC). We are writing the firmware, testing it, and integrating it with the other firmware for the DCRC.

The efficiency and noise-rejection requirements of the L1 trigger are achieved by exploiting a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter with a very long baseline, which allows us to calculate a real-time energy estimator that is comparable in resolution and fidelity to the energy estimators used in offline data analysis.