Design and Testing of a Wireless Demonstrator for Large Instrumentation Systems

Abstract: In this proceeding, we report the development of a wireless demonstrator intended to readout instrumentation systems having thousands of channels. A data acquisition system was designed and tested based on compliant implementation of 802.11n based hardware and protocols. This project is for large detectors containing photomultiplier tubes. Both free-space optical and radio frequency techniques were tested for wireless power transfer. The front-end circuitry, including a high-voltage power supply was powered wirelessly, thus creating an all-wireless detector readout. The system was successfully tested as a single detector module, which was powered wirelessly and transmitted data wirelessly. The performance of the prototype system and how a large scale implementation of the system might be realized are described in this proceeding.