A digital front-end and readout microsystem for calorimetry at LHC

Abstract A digital solution to the front-end electronics for calorimetric detectors at future supercolliders is presented. The solution is based on high speed A D converters, a fully programmable pipeline/digital filter chain and local intelligence. Questions of error correction, fault-tolerance and system redundancy are also being considered. A system integration of a multichannel device in a multichip, Silicon-on-Silicon Microsystem hybrid, is used. This solution allows a new level of integration of complex analogue and digital functions, with an excellent flexibility in mixing technologies for the different functional blocks. It also allows a high degree of programmability at both the function and the system level, and offers the possibility of customising the microsystem with detector-specific functions.