A Read-out Driver for Silicon Detectors in ATLAS

An overview of a read-out driver (ROD) for silicon detectors in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is presented. Two silicon-based ATLAS tracking systems, referred to as the Pixel Detector and the Semiconductor Tracker (SCT), are controlled and read-out using a common 9U VME board. A hybrid design of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) has allowed the Silicon ROD to meet the challenges of format error-counting and event trapping without interfering in the construction and transmission of event fragments to the next level in the read-out system. Performance of the ROD during detector assembly, calibrations and cosmic-ray data-taking are also discussed.