About Caribou

Caribou is a flexible, modular data acquisition (DAQ) platform specifically developed to support the rapid prototyping and characterization of silicon pixel detectors. Since many pixel detectors rely on comparable power-delivery schemes, control architectures, and readout concepts, Caribou is built with the goal of minimizing the engineering effort required on the underlying test infrastructure. This allows developers and researchers to concentrate on device-specific integration, configuration, and performance evaluation rather than reinventing the core DAQ environment for each new sensor thus significantly reducing development time and improving overall productivity for detector R&D efforts.

Caribou is mainly developped by a collaborative effort of five institutes: CERN, DESY, BNL, Carleton University and ORNL. Together, these institutes coordinate the overall project, drive the development of the system, and deliver ongoing support to a growing user community that now includes more than 20 research institutes across the globe.

Originally developed for the ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) and CLIC vertex detector projects, Caribou’s open-source architecture now supports a broad range of applications, providing a ready-to-use, adjustable, and efficient prototyping platform for detector development.

Caribou is widely employed within the AIDAinnova program and several other collaborative initiatives — including CERN EP R&D, DRD3, and Tangerine — to support both laboratory studies and high-rate beam tests. Its modular architecture enables straightforward integration of new silicon pixel detector prototypes, making it an ideal platform for rapid development, characterization, and performance evaluation across diverse research environments.

Contributing to Caribou

Individuals or institutes interested in contributing to the Caribou project or participating in its ongoing development are invited to contact the core development team. Contributions may take the form of joining the main development effort, proposing new features, or suggesting enhancements for possible inclusion in future releases. Work presented by contributors or ideas requiring further discussion may be brought to one of the regular developers’ meetings, where updates and proposals are reviewed collectively.

To initiate contact, inquiries can be sent to caribou-developers@cern.ch. This provides a direct channel for discussing how potential contributions may align with current activities and the long-term evolution of the Caribou ecosystem. Community engagement is highly valued, and new proposals are welcomed as part of the collaborative effort to advance the platform.

Getting support with Caribou

Support for the Caribou system is available through the dedicated Mattermost group, where both developers and users can provide assistance, exchange information, and offer guidance. Direct inquiries may also be addressed to the development team via caribou-developers@cern.ch.

Issues or bugs should be reported either through the relevant Mattermost channel for the component involved or by opening an issue in the corresponding Caribou GitLab repository. These channels are actively monitored, ensuring that problems are tracked efficiently and addressed collaboratively by the development team and the wider user community.

Citing Caribou

COMING SOON !