Design and performance of a CCD based readout for the DELPHI barrel electromagnetic calorimeter

The authors describe the design criteria and performance of a CCD based readout system developed for use in the DELPHI experiment at LEP. These circuits are designed for use on the cathode pads of the High Density Projection Chamber (HPC) which will serve as the DELPHI central region electromagnetic calorimeter. Two separate CAMAC versions of this system have been tested on prototype HPC modules exposed to both hadrons and electrons. Stability and performance characteristics of these circuits at CCD input frequencies up to 20 MHz are presented. They also present results on the electron shower energy resolution for the HPC prototypes