Irradiation Tests and Expected Performance of Readout Electronics of the ATLAS Hadronic Endcap Calorimeter for the HL-LHC

The readout electronics of the ATLAS Hadronic Endcap Calorimeter (HEC) will have to withstand an about 3-5 times larger radiation environment at the future high-luminosity LHC (HLLHC) compared to their design values. The preamplifier and summing boards (PSBs), which are equipped with GaAs ASICs and comprise the heart of the readout electronics, were irradiated with neutrons and protons with fluences surpassing several times ten years of operation of the HL-LHC. Neutron tests were performed at the NPI in Rez, Czech Republic, where a 36 MeV proton beam was directed on a thick heavy water target to produce neutrons. The proton irradiation was done with 200 MeV protons at the PROSCAN area of the Proton Irradiation Facility at the PSI in Villigen, Switzerland. In-situ measurements of S-parameters in both tests allow the evaluation of frequency dependent performance parameters, like gain and input impedance, as a function of fluence. The linearity of the ASIC response was measured directly in the neutron tests with a triangular input pulse of varying amplitude. The results obtained allow an estimation of the expected performance degradation of the HEC. For a possible replacement of the PSB chips, alternative technologies were investigated and exposed to similar neutron radiation levels. In particular, IHP 250 nm Si CMOS technology has turned out to show good performance and match the specifications required. The performance measurements of the current PSB devices, the expected performance degradations under HL-LHC conditions, and results from alternative technologies will be presented.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, CHEF2013 Conference Proceedings. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1301.375

Fast Low Fidelity Microsimulation of Vehicle Traffic on Supercomputers

A set of very simple rules for driving behavior used to simulate roadway traffic gives realistic results. Because of its simplicity, it is easy to implement the model on supercomputers (vectorizing and parallel), where we have achieved real time limits of more than 4~million~kilometers (or more than 53~million vehicle sec/sec). The model can be used for applications where both high simulation speed and individual vehicle resolution are needed. We use the model for extended statistical analysis to gain insight into traffic phenomena near capacity, and we discuss that this model is a good candidate for network routing applications. (Submitted to Transportation Research Board Meeting, Jan. 1994, Washington D.C.)Comment: 11 pages, latex, figs. available upon request, Cologne-WP 93.14

Neutron and proton tests of different technologies for the upgrade of the cold readout electronics of the ATLAS Hadronic End-cap Calorimeter

The expected increase of total integrated luminosity by a factor ten at the HL-LHC compared to the design goals for LHC essentially eliminates the safety factor for radiation hardness realized at the current cold amplifiers of the ATLAS Hadronic End-cap Calorimeter (HEC). New more radiation hard technologies have been studied: SiGe bipolar, Si CMOS FET and GaAs FET transistors have been irradiated with neutrons up to an integrated fluence of 2.2 x 10^{16} n/cm^2 and with 200 MeV protons up to an integrated fluence of 2.6 x 10^{14} p/cm^2. Comparisons of transistor parameters such as the gain for both types of irradiations are presented.Comment: 6 pages, CALOR2012 Conference Proceeding