Performance tests and hardware qualification of the FEBs for the Super-FGD of T2K Phase II

TL;DR

This paper reports on the performance testing and hardware qualification of the front-end electronics boards (FEBs) used in the Super-FGD detector upgrade for the T2K Phase II neutrino experiment, ensuring reliable operation within the detector system.

Contribution

It introduces a custom quality control test bench for hardware qualification of 240 FEBs and confirms their performance meets detector requirements.

Findings

FEBs passed performance tests aligning with detector needs.

Hardware qualification process identified and localized failures efficiently.

Electronics installation completed successfully, enabling initial neutrino beam data collection.

Abstract

T2K is a long baseline neutrino experiment, entering Phase II with a Near Detector upgrade. The T2K near detector (ND280) upgrade consists of the installation of three new detector systems: a plastic scintillator neutrino active target (Super-FGD), two time projection chambers (HA-TPC) and a time of flight detector (TOF). The Super-FGD is composed of 2-million 1 cm-cube scintillating cubes read by almost 60 thousand wavelength-shifting (WLS) fibers coupled to an MPPC on one end. Given the large number of channels, the limited space inside magnetic environment, and the limited time from production to installation, the development and testing of the Front-end electronics boards (FEB) for the read-out of the Super-FGD channels represented a challenging task for the success of the upgrade. This work presents the performance tests confirming that the FEB aligns with detector requirements, and the hardware qualification of 240 FEBs through a custom QC test bench designed to detect and locate hardware failures to speed up the repairing process. Installation of the electronics in the detector took place in March 2024, one year after the beginning of the FEB mass production, and the first successful neutrino beam run took place in June of the same year.