Upgrade of the ATLAS hadronic Tile calorimeter for the High luminosity LHC

TL;DR

The ATLAS Tile Calorimeter is being upgraded for the High Luminosity LHC to improve signal precision, reliability, and trigger capabilities through new electronics and testing of multiple front-end options.

Contribution

This paper presents the design, testing, and development of the upgraded electronics and systems for the TileCal in preparation for HL-LHC operations.

Findings

Successful laboratory tests of three front-end options

Development of new power distribution and off-detector electronics

Enhanced trigger signal processing capabilities

Abstract

The Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) is the hadronic calorimeter covering the central region of the ATLAS detector at the LHC. It is a sampling calorimeter consisting of alternating thin steel plates and scintillating tiles. Wavelength shifting fibers coupled to the tiles collect the produced light and are read out by photomultiplier tubes. Currently, an analog sum of the processed signal of several photomultipliers serves as input to the first level of trigger. Photomultiplier signals are then digitized and stored on detector and are only transferred off detector once the first trigger acceptance has been confirmed. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has envisaged a series of upgrades towards a High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) delivering five times the LHC nominal instantaneous luminosity. The ATLAS Phase II upgrade, in 2024, will accommodate the detector and data acquisition system for the HL-LHC. In particular, TileCal will undergo a major replacement of its on- and off-detector electronics. All signals will be digitized and then transferred directly to the off-detector electronics, where the signals will be reconstructed, stored, and sent to the first level of trigger at a rate of 40 MHz. This will provide better precision of the calorimeter signals used by the trigger system and will allow the development of more complex trigger algorithms. Changes to the electronics will also contribute to the reliability and redundancy of the system. Three different front-end options are presently being investigated for the upgrade. Results of extensive laboratory tests and with beams of the three options will be presented, as well as the latest results on the development of the power distribution and the off-detector electronics.