Input Mezzanine card for the fast tracker at ATLAS

Abstract

The Fast Tracker is an integral part of trigger upgrade program for the ATLAS experiment. At LHC Run 2, which started operations in June 2015 at a center of mass energy of 13 TeV, the luminosity could reach up to 2•1034 cm−2 s−1 and an average of 40-50 simultaneous proton collisions per beam crossing will be expected. The higher luminosity demands a more sophisticated trigger system with increased use of tracking information. The FTK is a highly-parallel hardware system that rapidly finds and reconstructs tracks in the ATLAS inner-detector at the triggering stage. This paper focuses on the Mezzanine Board that is input module of the entire FTK system. The functions of this board are: receive the pixel and micro-strip data from the ATLAS Silicon read-out drivers, perform clustering, and forward the data to its mother board. Mass production and quality control tests of Mezzanine Boards were completed, and staged installation and commissioning are ongoing. Details of its functionality, mass production, quality control tests, and installation are reported.