Caribou is a versatile and modular data acquisition (DAQ) system designed for prototyping silicon pixel detectors. As most of the pixel detectors share similar power, control and readout concepts, the system is designed with the objective of minimizing the work on the base test-system and maximizing the focus on device integration and testing. Built around the Control and Readout (CaR) board, Caribou provides an adaptable hardware platform that includes all essential interfaces and power supplies needed for a range of detectors. It streamlines the process of testing and debugging new detectors by providing configurable firmware blocks, comprehensive software interfaces, and reusable hardware components. This flexibility makes it easy to tailor the Caribou system to different detector needs, reducing development time and enhancing productivity.

Caribou is developped by a collaborative effort valuing user contributions but lead by five main institutes:

Institution Contribution
CERN Project coordination; Firmware; Software; Hardware; Documentation and support
DESY Software; Hardware; Support
BNL Hardware
Carleton University Hardware
ORNL Foreseen support on firmware and software

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 DAQ framework for detector development.

Caribou is primarily used within AIDAinnova and other collaborative frameworks (CERN EP R&D, DRD3, Tangerine) for laboratory and high-rate beam tests and easy integration of new silicon pixel detector prototypes.