Measurement of single event upsets in the ALICE-TPC front-end electronics

TL;DR

This paper reports on measurements of radiation-induced single event upsets in the ALICE-TPC front-end electronics, demonstrating how commercial components perform under LHC radiation conditions and informing their protection strategies.

Contribution

First measurements of LHC radiation effects on ALICE front-end electronics, validating expectations and informing radiation hardness and error mitigation strategies.

Findings

Electronics are affected by LHC radiation levels as expected.

Commercial off-the-shelf components can be used with proper qualification.

Single event upsets were observed and characterized.

Abstract

The Time Projection Chamber of the ALICE experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider features highly integrated on-detector read-out electronics. It is following the general trend of high energy physics experiments by placing the front-end electronics as close to the detector as possible -- only some 10 cm away from its active volume. Being located close to the beams and the interaction region, the electronics is subject to a moderate radiation load, which allowed us to use commercial off-the-shelf components. However, they needed to be selected and qualified carefully for radiation hardness and means had to be taken to protect their functionality against soft errors, i.e. single event upsets. Here we report on the first measurements of LHC induced radiation effects on ALICE front-end electronics and on how they attest to expectations.