EPJ manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) GARFIELD + RCo Digital Upgrade: a Modern Set-up for Mass and Charge Identification of Heavy Ion Reaction Products

Abstract. An upgraded GARFIELD + Ring Counter (RCo) apparatus is presented with improved per-formances as far as electronics and detectors are concerned. On one side fast sampling digital read out has been extended to all detectors, allowing for an important simplification of the signal processing chain together with an enriched extracted information. On the other side a relevant improvement has been made in the forward part of the setup (RCo): an increased granularity of the CsI(Tl) crystals and a higher homo-geneity in the silicon detector resistivity. The renewed performances of the GARFIELD + RCo array make it suitable for nuclear reaction measurements both with stable and with Radioactive Ion Beams (RIB), like the ones foreseen for the SPES facility, where the Physics of Isospin can be studied. PACS. 29.30.Ep Key words. Heavy-ion reactions – Charged particle and fragment identification.