Dedicated front-end electronics for an ILC prototype hadronic calorimeter with SiPM readout

A prototype hadronic calorimeter for the ELC detector is under construction at DESY. It will consist of 8000 scintillator tiles with analog readout performed via SiPM directly mounted on each tile. A dedicated ASIC has been developed to match the requirements of large dynamic range, low noise, high precision and large number of readout channels needed. Particular care is given to the optimization aspects of the ASIC in the SiPM readout chain. To fully exploit the self-calibrating potentiality of this photodetector device, capable of recording single photoelectron signals, an externally selectable gain and shaping time are included in the design. The calorimeter system is described and the first calibration data are presented.