A Novel Method of Encoded Multiplexing Readout for Micro-pattern Gas Detectors

The requirement of a large number of electronic channels poses a big challenge for Micro-pattern Gas Detector (MPGD) to achieve good spatial resolution. By using the redundancy that at least two neighboring strips record the signal of a particle, a novel method of encoded multiplexing readout for MPGDs is presented in this paper. The method offers a feasible and easily-extensible way of encoding and decoding, and can significantly reduce the number of readout channels. A verification test was carried out on a 5*5 cm2 Thick Gas Electron Multiplier (THGEM) detector using a 8 keV Cu X-ray source with 100um slit, where 166 strips are read out by 21 encoded readout channels. The test results show a good linearity in its position response, and the spatial resolution root-mean-square (RMS) of the test system is about 260 {\mu}m. This method has an attractive potential to build large area detectors and can be easily adapted to other detectors like MPGDs.