Frontend electronics development for the CMS pixel detector upgrade

The performance of the LHC accelerator at CERN has been outstanding since its startup in 2010. It seems likely that the delivered instantaneous luminosity exceeds its design value of 1034 cm−2 s−1 soon after the recommissioning in 2015. Tracking in such a dense environment is challenging. In order to compensate for the expected decrease in performance due to the high number of simultaneous interactions, an upgrade of the pixel detector has been proposed. Limitations of the frontend electronics of the present system are discussed and it is shown how they will be overcome.