UC Irvine

The ARIANNA experiment is an ultra-high energy neutrino detector designed to detect cosmogenic neutrinos. The experiment uses the Ross Ice Shelf to detect RF signals which are generated when the high energy neutrinos interact with the ice. The experiment plans to use a massive deployment of hundreds of antenna array stations to capture neutrino events over a large area. The stations use a data acquisition system to capture and store the data and subsequently transmit the data back to UCI. This thesis describes the design, functioning and results of the newest generation system which was deployed in the field in the 2014 season. The new system utilizes a new data digitization chip developed by the ARIANNA engineering group led by Dr. Stuart Kleinfelder. The new SST chip is a largely simplified and streamlined design compared to the previous generation chip and utilizes advanced circuitry to achieve fully synchronous operation while reducing the power usage by many factors. The new system makes substantial improvements over the previous generation system and introduces a number of new features, while providing a possible design solution for the final design requirements of the ARIANNA array systems.