Electronics design and testing of the CMS Fast Beam Condition Monitor for HL-LHC

TL;DR

This paper details the design, implementation, and testing of the CMS Fast Beam Condition Monitor, a radiation-hardened, high-resolution detector system for real-time luminosity and background monitoring at HL-LHC.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, standalone, triggerless beam monitor with radiation-hardened electronics and a modular testing system for the HL-LHC upgrade.

Findings

Successful design and validation of the FBCM front-end electronics

Implementation of a high-speed, radiation-hardened ASIC with 6 channels

Development of a comprehensive testing system for the FBCM electronics

Abstract

The high-luminosity upgrade of the LHC (HL-LHC) brings unprecedented requirements for precision bunch-by-bunch luminosity measurement and beam-induced background monitoring in real time. A key component of the CMS Beam Radiation Instrumentation and Luminosity detector system is a stand-alone luminometer, the Fast Beam Condition Monitor (FBCM), which is able to operate independently at all times with a triggerless asynchronous readout. FBCM utilizes a dedicated front-end ASIC to amplify the signals from CO$_2$-cooled silicon-pad sensors with 1 ns timing resolution. Front-end (FE) electronics are subject to high-radiation conditions, thus all components are radiation hardened: sensors, ASICs, transceivers, etc. The FBCM ASIC contains 6 channels, each outputting a high-speed binary signal carrying the time-of-arrival and time-over-threshold information. This signal is sent via a gigabit optical link to the back-end electronics for analysis. A dedicated test system is designed for the FBCM FE electronics with a modular setup for all testing needs of the project from initial ASIC validation test to system-level testing with the full read-out chain. The paper reports on the design, read-out architecture, and testing program for the FBCM electronics.