Exploring New Clustering Algorithms for the CMS Tracker FED

In the current Front End (FE) firmware clusters of hits within the APV frames are found using a simple threshold comparison (which is made between the data and a 3 or 5 sigma strip noise cut) on reordered pedestal and Common Mode (CM) noise subtracted data. In addition the CM noise subtraction requires the baseline of each APV frame to be approximately uniform. Therefore, the current algorithm will fail if the APV baseline exhibits large-scale non-uniform behavior. Under very high luminosity conditions the assumption of a uniform APV baseline breaks down and the FED is unable to maintain a high efficiency of cluster finding. \nFor the reasons mentioned above a new algorithm is necessary because under high luminosity p-p or ion-ion collision conditions the APV baseline has been shown to exhibit non-uniform behavior.