CLIC-ACM: Acquisition and Control System

CLIC [1] (Compact Linear Collider) is a world-wide collaboration to study the next terascale lepton collider, relying upon a very innovative concept of two-beamacceleration. In this scheme, the power is transported to the main accelerating structures by a primary electron beam. The Two Beam Module (TBM) is a compact integration with a high filling factor of all components: RF, Magnets, Instrumentation, Vacuum, Alignment and Stabilization. This paper describes the very challenging aspects of designing the compact system to serve as a dedicated Acquisition & Control Module (ACM) for all signals of the TBM. Very delicate conditions must be considered, in particular radiation doses that could reach several kGy in the tunnel. In such severe conditions shielding and hardened electronics will have to be taken into consideration. In addition, with more than 300 ADC&DAC channels per ACM and about 21000 ACMs in total, it appears clearly that power consumption will be an important issue. It is also obvious that digitalization of the signals acquisition will take place at the lowest possible hardware level and that neither the local processor, nor the operating system shall be used inside the ACM.