Study Of The Point-to-point Readout Electronics For The Alice Electromagnetic Calorimeter At Lhc

After the second long shutdown in2018, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will progressively increase the luminosity of lead beams; the minimum Pb-Pb interaction rate will eventually reach about50kHz. This rate is about20times of the rate can be handled by the present readout electronics of the ALICE Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMCal). In addition, the ALICE Di-Jet Calorimeter (DCal), which is approved in the fall of2009, requires same readout electronics as the EMCal. The DCal is required to be installed during the2013-2014long shut-down.The main work and contribution in this dissertation is that the dead time of the ALICE EMCal detector has been greatly decreased from400μs to19μs. This result is gradually achieved with following methods:By implementing sparse readout algorithm through FPGA firmware, the dead time is decreased from400μs to270μs;By upgrading the topology of the readout system, replace bus with point-to-point links, the dead time is decreased from400μs to36μs;By implementing Low Gain (LG) readout suppression algorithm, the dead time is decreased from36us to19μμs;The test results of the prototype demonstrate that the new system allows EMCal/DCal to cope with the50kHz minimum Pb-Pb bias interaction rate in the future. Furthermore, the new system not only preserves the compatibility with the existing EMCal hardware, but also eliminates faults from the local bus failure and simplifies the system maintenance. The new system has been approved by both the ALICE upgrade Committee and EMCal/DCal Collaboration. It is being installed on the EMCal/DCal detectors during2013-2014LHC long shut-down.