Hardware and Firmware Development for an FPGA-based Multipurpose Board Targeted for High Energy Physics Experiments

This thesis (PFC) describes the hardware and firmware development of an FPGA- based multi-purpose board targeted for High Energy Physics (HEP) that has been carried out during my stay at CERN. Chapter 1 introduces CERN and HEP experiments. The 27 km long accelerator namely Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as well as the six LHC experiments (CMS, ATLAS, LHCb, ALICE, TOTEM, and LHCf) are briefly described. This chapter is mainly focused on the electronics systems architecture for the above mentioned experiments and on the communication links between the electronic systems of the detectors and the counter room. Finally, the reasons that have led to the development of the board presented in this thesis (PFC), as well as the requirements for the new board are mentioned. Chapter 2 describes the Gigabit Link Interface Board (GLIB), .the board that has been designed and developed during my stay at CERN. After a general introduction to the board and its purpose, the main features of the board are briefly described. Besides the hardware, firmware and software, the auxiliary boards implied in the project are mentioned as well. At the end of the chapter, one of the projects carried out during the development and testing of the GLIB is selected for further explanation. Chapter 3 deals with the explanation of the selected project. This project emulates a link between Front-end (FE) and Back-end (BE) electronics. As soon as the objectives of the project have been clarified, the explanation begins with a brief description of the components implied in the project, continues through the setup of these components and ends with a presentation of the results obtained from the tests. Chapter 4 summarizes the status of the GLIB project at the moment of writing this thesis and also presents the future courses of action planned for the next months.