CMS ECAL Upgrade Front End card: design and prototype test results

The CMS ECAL Phase 2 Front-End (FE) card is designed to provide streaming of digitized datagenerated on the Very-Frond-End (VFE) cards to the CMS ECAL back-end electronics system based onthe Barrel Calorimeter Processor (BCP) ATCA modules. The FE card is intended to utilize data linksdeveloped within the Versatile Link common project. The card will contain four lpGBT ASICS withcorresponding versatile link plus optical link modules.The first prototype FE card was developed to validate the clock distribution, the high speed serial data linksas well as other specific technical features of the future design using the currently available GBT chipsetand versatile link components