The ALICE TPC, a large 3-dimensional tracking device with fast readout for ultra-high multiplicity events

Article ID	Journal	Published Year	Pages	File Type
10715915	Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment	2010	52 Pages	PDF

Abstract

In this paper we describe in detail the design considerations for this detector for operation in the extreme multiplicity environment of central Pb-Pb collisions at LHC energy. The implementation of the resulting requirements into hardware (field cage, read-out chambers, electronics), infrastructure (gas and cooling system, laser-calibration system), and software led to many technical innovations which are described along with a presentation of all the major components of the detector, as currently realized. We also report on the performance achieved after completion of the first round of stand-alone calibration runs and demonstrate results close to those specified in the TPC Technical Design Report.

Keywords

CCD ITS NTP LSB ADC PCB ROC PID NMOs GTL TPC TDR SSW RMS TTC TCF TOF SCADA FWHM OPC FET phos PLC DCs INL OLE FEC DAC TRD FSM GEM TRG CTP FMD RCC LEP DNL DAQ PASA MSPs RCU LDC SRAM Digital to analog converter PMOs ALICE RHIC MWPC HMPID Photon multiplicity detector MTBF SFDR EEPROM Ring imaging Cherenkov ENOB SIU ECs ENc HLT MEB PMd S/N TCP/IP Field Programmable Gate array Transition Radiation Detector Time-of-flight detector Analog to digital Converter DIM CSA LHC Large Hadron Collider Ultra violet Printed Circuit Board Field-effect transistor Charge sensitive amplifier RICH Alternating current Direct Current Static random access memory SEU DDL Finite state machine Charge-Coupled Device CFD Computational fluid dynamics Finite element method TID Mean time between failures PEEK Star CERN Sel Data acquisition system Trigger system Detector control system CMOS Equivalent noise charge Local area network Gas electron multipliers CAD computer aided design full width half maximum high frequency LAn time projection chamber FPGA Single Event Upset Power supply CAN root mean square Signal-to-noise ratio FEE Control unit High voltage low voltage FEM Electromagnetic calorimeter Least significant bit Programmable Logic Controller Controller Area Network UPS