Operational Experience and Evolution of the ATLAS Tile Hadronic Calorimeter Read-Out Drivers

• Published in: IEEE transactions on nuclear science Vol. 68; no. 8; pp. 1807 - 1810
• Main Author: Valero, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.08.2021; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Calorimetry; Data acquisition; Digital filters; Digital signal processing; digital signal processors; Electronics; Fibers; Field programmable gate arrays; field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs); Firmware; Large Hadron Collider; Photomultiplier tubes; Rods; Tiles
• ISSN: 0018-9499; 1558-1578
• DOI: 10.1109/TNS.2021.3084690

TileCal is the central hadronic calorimeter of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is a sampling detector where scintillating tiles are embedded in steel absorber plates. The tiles are grouped to form cells, which are read-out on both sides using wavelength-shifting fibers by two photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The PMT digital samples are transmitted to the read-out drivers (RODs) located in the back-end system for the events accepted by the Level 1 trigger system. The ROD is the core element of the back-end electronics, and it represents the interface between the front-end electronics and the ATLAS overall data acquisition (DAQ) system. The commissioning of the RODs was completed in 2008 before the first LHC collisions. Since then, several hardware and firmware updates have been implemented to accommodate the RODs to the evolving ATLAS Trigger and DAQ conditions adjusted to follow the LHC performance. The initial ROD system, the different updates implemented, and the operational experience during the LHC Run 1 and Run 2 are presented.