Hexaboard Reception Tests and NIM Replacement for the High Granularity Calorimeter

There are two projects presented in this report: the first is hexaboard reception tests for the High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) and the second is the replacement of Nuclear Instrumentation Modules (NIMs) with a NIM+. Hexaboards will be a component of the HGCAL, which will replace the CMS endcaps as part of the High-Luminosity LHC project upgrades. Hexaboards from two manufacturers, Cistelaier and Eltos, were tested after being globtopped to determine if errors were due to the globtopping, faulty chips, or the boards themselves. The aim of the second project was to replace NIMs with a NIM+, composed of a ZedBoard and a custom discriminator, which was developed at Fermilab. To achieve this, a software suite for high-level synthesis called Vivado was used to program the FPGA on the ZedBoard.