Development of a time-to-digital converter ASIC for the upgrade of the ATLAS Monitored Drift Tube detector

TL;DR

This paper presents a new time-to-digital converter ASIC designed to upgrade the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer's detector system, improving timing precision and power efficiency for high-luminosity conditions.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel TDC ASIC prototype fabricated in 130 nm CMOS technology, optimized for the ATLAS MDT detector upgrade.

Findings

Timing bin variation of 40 ps across 48 channels

Power consumption of approximately 6.5 mW per channel

Design meets the specified timing and power requirements

Abstract

The upgrade of the ATLAS muon spectrometer for high-luminosity LHC requires new trigger and readout electronics for the various elements of the detector. We present the design of a time-to-digital converter (TDC) ASIC prototype for the ATLAS Monitored Drift Tube (MDT) detector. The chip was fabricated in a GlobalFoundries 130 nm CMOS technology. Studies indicate that its timing and power consumption characteristics meet the design specifications, with a timing bin variation of 40 ps for all 48 channels with a power consumption of about 6.5 mW per channel.