Design of a Portable Test Facility for the ATLAS Tile Calorimeter Front-End Electronics Verification

The stand-alone test-bench deployed in the past for the verification of the Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) front-end electronics is reaching the end of its life cycle. A new version of the test-bench has been designed and built with the aim of improving the portability and exploring new technologies for future versions of the TileCal read-out electronics. An FPGA based motherboard with an embedded hardware processor and a few dedicated daughter-boards are used to implement all the functionalities needed to interface with the front-end electronics (TTC, G-Link, CANbus) and to verify the functionalities using electronic signals and LED pulses. The new device is portable and performs well, allowing the validation in realistic conditions of the data transmission rate. We discuss the system implementation and all the tests required to gain full confidence in the operation of the front-end electronics of the TileCal in the ATLAS detector.