Electronics for the CMS muon drift tube chambers: the read-out minicrate

On the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experimentat the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory, the drift tube chambers are responsible for muon detection and precise momentum measurement. In this paper the first level of the read out electronics for these drift tube chambers is described. These drift tube chambers will be located inside the muon barrel detector in the so-called minicrates (MCs), attached to the chambers. The read out boards (ROBs) are the main component of this first level data acquisition system, and they are responsible for the time digitalization related to Level 1 Accept (L1A) trigger of the incoming signals from the front-end electronics, followed by a consequent data merging to the next stages of the data acquisition system. ROBs' architecture and functionality have been exhaustively tested, as well as their capability of operation beyond the expected environmental conditions inside the CMS detector. Due to the satisfactory results obtained, final production of ROBs and their assembly in the MCs has already started. A total amount of 250 MCs and approximately 1500 ROBs are being produced and tested thoroughly at CIEMAT (Spain). One set of tests, the burn-in tests, will guarantee ten years of limited maintenance operation. An overview of the system and a summary of the different results of the tests performed on ROBs and MCs will be presented. They include acceptance tests for the production chain as well as several validation tests that insure proper operation of the ROBs beyond the CMS detector conditions.