High speed data transmission on small gauge cables for the ATLAS Phase-II Pixel detector upgrade

The High Luminosity LHC will present a number of challenges for the upgraded ATLAS detector. In particular, data transmission requirements for the upgrade of the ATLAS Pixel detector will be difficult to meet. The expected trigger rate and occupancy imply multi-gigabit per second transmission rates will be required but radiation levels at the smallest radius preclude completely optical solutions. Electrical transmission up to distances of 7m will be necessary to move optical components to an area with lower radiation levels. Here, we explore the use of small gauge electrical cables as a high-bandwidth, radiation hard solution with a sufficiently small radiation length. In particular, we present a characterization of various twisted wire pair (TWP) configurations of various material structures, including measurements of their bandwidth, crosstalk, and radiation hardness. We find that a custom ``hybrid'' cable consisting of 1m of a multi-stranded TWP with Poly-Ether-Ether-Ketone (PEEK) insulation and a thin Al shield followed by 6m of a thin twin-axial cable presents a low-mass solution that fulfills bandwidth requirements and is expected to be sufficiently radiation hard. Additionally, we discuss preliminary results of using measured S-parameters to produce a SPICE model for a 1m sample of the custom TWP to be used for the development of new pixel readout chips.