LHCb: Test Station for the LHCb Muon Front-End Electronic

The LHCb Muon Group has developed the CMOS ASIC CARIOCA to readout its Multiwire Proportional Chambers (MWPC) and GEM detectors, using a rad-hard IBM 0.25um process. Each ASIC holds 8 identical current-mode ASDB channels with individual input thresholds. The Muon detector contains around 120000 physical channels, requiring production of 20000 front-end chips, roughly. CARIOCA has been developed to process MWPC cathode and anode signals and two different versions have been implemented to overcome the requirement of MWP and GEM chambers operation. The test station has been devised to accomplish bipolar tests and to measure characteristics of both CARIOCA versions.