D0 Muon Electronics Homepage
Last updated on December 08, 2003

Muon Electronics for Run II:

  • What's new on this page?

  • Muon Electronics in general

  • ECB related documents
  • Muon Electronics in IEEE Publications
  • Muon Electronics Tecnical Design Report

    • What's new on this page?

    We have converted most of the files into Adobe PDF file format to increase downloading speed. You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 free from here.

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    Muon Electronics in general

    Upgraded muon system for Run II consists of three basic subsytems which include existing WAMUS proportional drift tube (PDT) chambers, scintillation counters (SC) and mini-drift tubes (MDT). The old analog electronics for WAMUS chambers has been replaced due to the new requirements based on the beam structure.
    New scintillation and mini-drift tube detectors require new electronics. All electronics except the readout electronics are located in the D0 collision hall. This includes approximately 9,500 channels of on-chamber PDT (WAMUS) electronics, 6,000 channels of scintillation counter electronics and 50,000 channels of mini-drift tube electronics. Design of the electronics for each muon subsystem is based on a common strategy described as follows:

    During 1994-1995 a conceptual design of the deadtimeless data readout system was developed and finalized. The design and prototyping of the electronics is finished and its production for all subsystems is complete. D0 Muon Electronics group provides technical support for installation and commissioning efforts. The collaborating institutions PNPI (Gatchina, Russia) and JINR (Dubna, Russia) are supporting mini-drift tube front-end electronics and amplifier-discriminator board (ADB) electronics respectively. Fermilab part of the D0 Muon Electronics group is responsible for readout electronics, which are common for all muon subsystems, PDT (WAMUS) front-end electronics and scintillator front-end electronics. The latter two are based on the new TMC-TEG3 CMOS chip developed by Y.Arai from KEK.

    For additional information see D0 Notes 2370, 2705, 2780, 3062.

    The configuration of the muon electronics is almost finalized. You can find an overview of the muon electronics configuration here. A current version of the D0 electronics layout is available here. The muon only MCH3 electronics layout is also available. Muon cable plant consists mainly of the existing cables for Run I. Initial consideration of this topic is available here.

    All muon electronics comply with D0 DAQ specifications (SCL spec and GS spec). Internally, we have several additional features defined within frames of the mentioned above specs. The INIT signal is processed by muon front-ends according to the muon GS spec.

    In order to make our new electronics look better we proposed a unified mechanical spec for VME based modules developed for the muon system. These modules require special 9U VME crates to function properly. The crates are air cooled and designed to work at normal ambient temperature (25 degrees C) at their location. For details see D0 Muon Front-End Crate Installation Specification.

    Unified data formats for all subsystems are developed by Muon On-line Software group. A current version of the Muon Data Formats for L2 & L3specification is available.

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    Commissioning Status

     Muon Electronics is fully installed and running. We need to complete the commissioning by eliminating the remaining few minor problems. We will place here weekly reports from Muon Commissioning meetings while those problems persist. The Muon Electronics is divided into pieces by Geographic Sections (GS). Each GS consists of Muon Readout Crate and associated Front-End crates.

    The following crate IDs are used for muon sub-systems:

    Summary from Muon Commissioning meetings:

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    Readout Electronics

     Muon data readout is based on two unified interface modules: Muon Fanout Card (MFC) and Muon Readout Card (MRC). The MRC interfaces muon readout crate to the front-end electronics. The MFC interfaces muon readout crate to the D0 Trigger Framework (TFW). The MRC and MFC are slave VME modules controlled by a commercial VME processor Motorola MVME162 and VME Buffer Driver (VBD) card. A general description of the MFC and MRC can be obtained from IEEE publication "D0 Muon Readout Electronics Design". There is also a Trigger Fanout Card (TFC) which is dedicated mainly for local system tests and diagnostic when D0 DAQ and/or TFW are not present or not available. For diagnostic purposes we have developed a HP analyzer adapter board. This board can be plugged in the readout crate and provides standard set of TFW related signals on 34 pin connectors matching HP 1660 series analyzer cables. All muon readout electronics are located in the Movable Counting House (MCH) on a 3rd floor of the D0 Assembly Building. All the cards are realized as 9U x 280 mm VME modules and are housed in the 21 slot 9U VME crates. These crates have a custom 9U size backplane that utilizes user defined J2 and J3 connections. One of the important features of the MRC and MFC modules is a transmittion of the timing signals to the front-end electronics. These signals are received and distributed by the MFC and MRC modules. Wide bandwidth coaxial ribbon cable is used to bring timing signals to the controller units in the front-ends.

    Readout Electronics Updates:

    Muon Readout Electronics Pictures (click to zoom in):

    Muon Readout crate in MCH3 Igor Churin works with Muon Readout crate Muon Readout Card Trigger Fanout Card HP analyzer adapter board for Muon Readout crate

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    Monitoring and Control

     All muon sub-systems have 1553B bus interface as a primary tool to provide monitoring and control capabilities. Communication with muon Remote Terminals (RT) is supported by existing run I hardware and EPICS software. For details on EPICS software see on-line systems web page. All muon front-ends also have a custom RS-232 serial link that uses two twisted pairs in 50 conductor cable connecting MRC to the front-ends. This link is used to generate BREAK signal during readout crate power-up and subsequently reset front-ends to the initial state. It also can be used as a substitute for the 1553 bus connection in local readout mode and stand alone configurations. We have specified 1553 RT address assignment for three muon detector subsystems:

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    PDT Electronics

     A general description of the PDT electronics can be obtained from IEEE publication "D0 Upgrade Muon Electronics Design". The PDT electronics consists of Front-End Board (FEB) and Control Board (CB). Both boards are located on muon PDTs and have non-standard physical dimensions.

    PDT Electronics Tests

    PDT Electronics test results are available in Adobe PDF format:

    PDT Electronics design updates

    Recent PDT Electronics updates include:

    PDT Electronics Pictures (click to zoom in):

    9U VME PDT FEB Tester PDT FEB24 on the test stand PDT Electronics Test Stand PDT Control Board

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    Scintillator Electronics

     The Scintillator Electronics consists of Scintillator Front-End card (SFE) and Scintillator Read-out Controller (SRC). There is also an auxillary Scintillator LED Pulser (SLP) module dedicated to drive LED test system (see D0 Note 3563) for phototube monitoring. Scintillator electronics are housed in 9U VME crates and are located in the collision hall. The crates are distributed around the D0 detector. All the cards are based on 9U x 280 mm VME modules.

    SC Electronics design updates

     Recent SC Electronics updates include:

    Scintillation Counter Electronics Pictures (click to zoom in):

    SC Electronics front-end crate Vladimir Podstavkov works with SC Electronics Scintillation Counter Front-End Card Scintillation Counter Readout Controller

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    MDT Electronics

     The MDT electronics include amplifier-discriminator boards (ADB) and VME-based front-end electronics consisting of mini-drift tube digitizing card (MDC) and mini-drift tube readout controller (MDRC). The ADBs are located on mini-drift tubes. The MDC and MDRC are housed in the similar to the scintillator electronics 9U VME crates. The MDT crates are located on the north and south EFs and trusses.

    Mini Drift Tube Electronics Pictures (click to zoom in):

    MDT front-end crate Petr Neoustroev works with MDT Electronics Mini Drift Tube Digitizing Card Mini Drift Tube Readout Controller MDT Electronics Tester Card

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    Muon Electronics maintenance

     We have transferred maintenance and repair of some of the Muon Electronics modules to Fermilab PREP. PREP currently provides necessary techincal and logistic support for the following projects: For the listed above projects contact CD at extension x2695

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    Up-to-date ECB-related documents:

     are available from Electronics Certification Board (ECB) web page.
    You must have a D0 UNIX account to gain access to this page.

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    Publications in IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

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    Muon Electronics Technical Design Report (D0 Note 3299):

     (Adobe PDF file format, you can download Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 from here)

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    Last Modified on: December 08, 2003
    This page is maintained by: Boris Baldin