Hardware architecture of the data acquisition and processing system for the JET Neutron Camera Upgrade (NCU) project

•Compact hardware architecture for the foreseen high count rates neutrons in the JET DT operations.•FPGA implementation of strong data size reduction.•Storage of raw data for reprocessing purposes.•Calibration of all the channels dynamic to manage the 14MeV neutrons.•Checked 50 plasma discharges to have enough statistics on the 14MeV burn-up neutrons. The Neutron Camera (NC) is a Joint European Torus (JET) diagnostic, based on a set of 19 collimated lines of sight equipped with plastic (BC418) and liquid (NE213) scintillators, with the main function of measuring the neutron emissivity profile due to 2.5MeV (DD) and 14MeV (DT). Due to several limitations of the present data acquisition system and in view of the JET DT campaign, an enhancement project (Neutron Camera Upgrade, NCU) was launched. The main objective was to improve the measurement capability of NC for 14MeV neutrons, by application of a high throughput FPGA-based digital acquisition system. The present paper describes the hardware architecture and the FPGA processing selected for the NCU project and the first tests carried out at JET.