Research and development of an intelligent particle tracker detector electronic system

In high energy physics, silicon particles detectors are widely used in tracking applications. They feature high-resolution measurements of the traversing particle positioning and frequently its energy. With the new possibilities introduced by technology scaling, the next generation of silicon detectors will be capable of real-time computing higher level information. Within the scope of this thesis is discussed a novel silicon particle detection system, for the CMS experiment, capable of providing information regarding the particle direction and transverse momentum, in addition to simple geometrical positioning and energy measurements. This feature allows the event reconstruction and even the offline physics analysis to handle more advanced measurements. Introducing in the sensor readout ASICs the ability to perform a simple real-time analysis of the particle signatures, allows to locally reject information unnecessary for the event reconstruction, with a significant gain in terms of bandwidth and power consumption. Studies have been carried out to identify the optimal architecture. At system-level, a simulation framework was developed to study and optimize the data processing algorithm and evaluate the more appropriate solution. A silicon prototype of the micro-strip readout ASIC incorporating all required functionalities for operating in the CMS experiment has been designed in a 65nm technology. One of the major challenges of the design is introduced by the very harsh environment, characterized by a high ionizing radiation dose up to 100Mrad and a low temperature around -40C. Low-power and radiation tolerance design techniques have been employed to fulfill the very tight power requirement and to mitigate total ionizing dose and single-event effects. The ASIC performance has been characterized by different working temperatures, operating conditions, and radiation levels. For this purpose, a custom test bench and software was developed. The ASIC measurements show results in agreement with the simulations, proving to fulfill the requirements.