The Front End Electronics of the Scintillator Pad Detector of the LHCb Calorimeter

Abstract

In this paper the Front End electronics of the Scintillator Pad Detector (SPD) is outlined. The SPD is a sub-system of the Calorimeter of the LHCb experiment designed to discriminate between charged and neutral particles for the first level trigger. The system design is presented, describing its different functionalities implemented through three different cards and several ASICs. These functionalities are signal processing and digitization, data transmission, interface with control and timing systems of the experiment, low voltage power supply distribution and monitoring. Special emphasis is placed on installation and commissioning subjects such as cabling, grounding, shielding and power distribution.