====== Front-End ======

{{ :front-end:fe.png?400 |}}

The physics event, marked as a dot creates an electromagnetic shower inside the PbWO_4 crystal and light is produced. This light is detected by APDs (Avalanche Photodiodes). (Two APDs with a detection surface of 7x14 mm^2 are used per crystal.) The APDs create a charge proportional to the detected light. This charge is linearly converted to a voltage pulse by the so called [[front-end:apfel|APFEL]] ((ASIC for PANDA Front End Electronics)). Before getting to the 10 m distant ADC (analogue to digital converter), the analogue signal needs to be amplified. This is done by the use of the line driver.
After the digitisation of the signal a Sampling ADC a feature extraction (FE) is applied and the data aquisition (DAQ) can be started.