Speaker
Description
The Tile Calorimeter (TileCal), the central hadronic calorimeter of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, is undergoing a comprehensive electronics upgrade in preparation for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) phase, expected to start in 2030. The HL-LHC will deliver a significantly increased instantaneous luminosity by a factor of 5 to 7.5, posing substantial challenges in terms of trigger rates, radiation tolerance, and pile-up conditions. To address these demands, the upgrade entails a complete replacement of both on- and off-detector electronics, as well as the substitution of approximately 10% of the photomultiplier tubes in the most radiation-exposed regions.
A key feature of the new system is the full digitization of signals from all TileCal channels at the front-end, with data transmitted to the back-end electronics at 40 MHz for reconstruction, storage, and input to the first-level trigger operating at rates up to 1 MHz. The upgraded architecture employs radiation-tolerant, modular front-end electronics with built-in redundancy, alongside high-speed optical links and modern Field Programmable Gate Arrays for data transmission and control. Extensive research and development efforts have been carried out, including test beam campaigns and the deployment of a Demonstrator module. The module was installed in the ATLAS detector in July 2019 to validate the new electronics under real operating conditions during Run 3 (2022–2026), while maintaining compatibility with the existing data acquisition system.
This contribution presents the current status of the TileCal upgrade, including recent developments in the on- and off-detector systems, results from test beam campaigns, and operational experience with the Demonstrator module, showing the system’s readiness to meet the challenges of HL-LHC operation.