25th IEEE Real Time Conference - La Biodola, Elba, Italy

Firmware Architecture for the ePixUHR Detector Enabling 35-kHz X-ray Imaging with Real-Time FPGA/GPU Processing

25 May 2026, 10:40

20m

Maria Luisa Room (Hotel Hermitage)

Oral presentation Data Acquisition and Trigger Architectures Real Time Diagnostics, Digital Twin, Control, Monitoring, Safety and Security

Speaker

Larry Ruckman (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

Description

The ePixUHR 35-kfps detector system addresses the need for ultra-high-rate x-ray imaging in next-generation FEL experiments by combining a modular 1-megapixel “SuperTile” detector architecture with an integrated real-time FPGA/GPU processing pipeline. Each SuperTile incorporates compact sensor/ASIC units and high-bandwidth front-end electronics capable of sustaining more than 80 Gb/s of streaming data while remaining fully synchronized with LCLS-II timing. The backend processing chain performs deterministic event assembly, dual-gain pixel processing, and GPU-accelerated data reduction. We demonstrate reliable 35-kHz acquisition and high-throughput delivery of detector data to the GPU, with ongoing work focused on completing the GPU processing pipeline and integrating with experiment data systems. These features establish ePixUHR as a scalable platform for future ultra-high-rate x-ray detectors requiring real-time computational performance.