1. TELL-1 and TDC board: present status and future plans B. Angelucci, A. Burato, S. Venditti

2. OUTLINE Improvements on hardware and firmware wrt previous reports Experimental setup used to perform tests Analysis of collected data Troubleshooting Where we stand and todo list

3. NEW HARDWARE: TDCB TDCB: V4 version delivered in Nov 2010: New connectors, allowing the use of new cables (standard SCSI). Power supply plug moved by mistake by about 2mm wrt the original projects, incompatible with TELL1/TEL62 TDCB V5 in production,first 2 expected in 2 weeks LVDS probe Cables Patch panel SCSI connectors PG

5. RAM PLL (clock 40Mhz) Transfer FIFO I2C TDC control JTAG master Switch Time Stamp FIRMWARE: TDCB QUARTUS II V.10.1

6. FIRMWARE: TDCB TDCB can be programmed through a USB blaster either directly (Active serial interface,.pof file) or indirectly (JTAG interface,.sof and.jic files) The TDCB clock can be taken directly from FPGA’s PLL or refined using the TDCB internal QPLL RAM blocks available (2 MB/TDCB), firmware allows to write on them but readout only through I 2 C by now JTAG chain

7. DATA FORMAT TDC data are in the form of 32 bit words 01010100010111010101100100010101 event time (1 bit=98ps,TDC rollover =2 19 =51,38µs) 19 bit 5 bit TDC channel (32) leading 0x4 trailing 0x5 4 bit TDC number & board (4x4) Lead/trail #words in a TDC trigger TDC TS Periodic triggers (12.8 µs normally used) are sent to the TDCB in order to read its data. A search window and a match window must be properly set to collect the TDC words in the right time windows TRIGGER MATCHING MODE

8. THE GOAL Setting up an automated TDCB test system in view of a massive TDCB production Use ad hoc patterns to test some crytical characteristics of the TDCBs: resolution, sustainability of high rates, possible faulty paths on PCBs The present tests were performed on only 8 channels and on the only two available V4 boards, but up to 32 channels can be presently pulsed. The final test system will be able to pulse 128/512 channels (1 TDCB/1 TELL62) at the same time, using predetermined patterns

9. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP The tests we performed on the TELL1 and TDCBs require the following items: A pattern generator with an input and output to trigger logic conditions in the pattern A LTUvi module to distribute the trigger sequence (given by the PG) to the TELL1 via the TTCex module Probe(s) to produce LVDS signals (1 used in these tests+1 just bought, 16+16 LVDS signals) NIM modules to convert different logic signals (NIM, ECL,TTL) produced by the various parts (PG, LTU) At least 1 PCs to be used both as a server and to store and analyze data (in our setup we use 2 different PCs for the two tasks) …and obviously a TELL1 with at least 1 TDCB!

10. 8 channels pulsed with 20ns long pulses (min 10 ns) PATTERN: a) single channels pulsed, 12.8µs pause between pulses b) all channels pulsed at the same time c) single channels pulsed, 10 ns between pulses (same TDCB TS) use of input/output PG channels to reset the TDCB TS at the beginning of each pattern Part of the pattern used (shifted signals)

11. Optical trigger to TELL1 Trigin/out from/to PG to LTU module Signal conversions Data to PC through GBE LTU-PG-TELL1-PC COMMUNICATION

12. The PG sends an output signal and waits for an input The output triggers the LTUvi module, which sends a reset signal to the TELL1 (causing TDC TS to reset) and a signal back to the PG input After the input the PG sends 2 more signals to the LTU through the output, which are sent as 2 triggers to the TELL1. the 2 triggers are delayed to collect the whole pattern. The pattern is then cyclically repeated till the acquisition is stopped. ~ 0.2M pattern/min collected Data are accumulated in the PP FIFOs and sent to the acquisition PC through a GBE connection when the TELL1 receives the LTUvi trigger (old TELL1 firmware) LTU-PG-TELL1-PC COMMUNICATION

13. DATA ANALYSIS The output from the TELL1 was sent through a GBE connection to the acquisition PC. Here data are turned into ROOT format in order to be easily analyzed. single signals (8 channels) 12,8 µs All channels (shifted) All channels Pulsed channels: 4-7, 12-15 TS time

14. CHANNELS 4,5,6,7,12,13,14,15 Leadings and trailings in part b (channels pulsed at the same time) and c (10 ns between pulses) of the pattern

15. TRAILING-LEADING TIME CHANNELS 4,5,6,7,12,13,14,15

16. Pulses from all channels (fired at the same time at PG level) Offsets will be used to eliminate channel-to-channel shifts

17. PROBLEMS DETECTED HOLES: one TDC shows “holes” in the time distribution TDC word time bins absolute time (referred to first pulse)

18. GUESS: bit 0 and 1 paths are in contact, so that the output of bits 0 and 1 is an OR of their real signals If so the truth table should be: Bit 0Bit 1Bit 0&1 0000 0111 10 11 2 empty bins every 4, 1/3 ratio between the other 2 and that’s it! TDC word time bins (detail)

19. NOISY CHANNELS A long time problem on noisy channels (see Marco’s last meeting presentation) was understood, the cause being that the channels not pulsed were not properly terminated. This caused a noise almost in time with the signal, which looked like cross talk. A new patch panel (input PG, output TDCB cable), already available, will solve this problem. Pulsed channels: 4-7, 12-15 16 unterminated channels 16 pulsed channels

20. Conclusions A (very) preliminary procedure to test TDC boards has been set up No data loss detected at the level of the collected statistics (~10 7 events) Resolution compatible with 100ps (~1 TDC bit), PG effect still to be understood (probably sizeable) Some problems have been detected, some of them were solved, many more will come… Todo list Produce a TDCB test program analyzing data and comparing them with the PG pattern High rate tests Offset adjustment of TDC channels Try to change trigger windows Firmware development