BE Seminar > Daniel

Wednesday 28 Oct 2026, 09:00 → 10:00 Europe/Zurich

14/5-022 (CERN)

09:00 → 09:50 Qualification tests of the bPOL12V_V6 “sudden failure”

The bPOL12V is a radiation-tolerant DC-DC converter designed to power the front-end electronics of various HL-LHC subdetectors. In 2024, the bPOL12V_V6 was expected to be the final version of the converter, with over 100,000 units produced. However, a design issue known as “sudden failure” was identified during ATLAS ITk testing: devices irradiated to 70 Mrad exhibited an unexpected increase in output voltage upon power-up, deviating significantly from their nominal values and losing their ability to regulate.

The back-end section supported the bPOL team throughout a qualification campaign which aimed to characterise sudden failure and assess its occurrence under different stress conditions. Beyond sudden failure, the campaign also revealed other issues that required dedicated follow-up investigations and additional testing. The campaign yielded valuable data on the survival probability of dozens of converters, helping the various subdetectors assess the risk of sudden failure and develop strategies to mitigate it.
This presentation provides an overview of the converter’s behaviour, the test systems and tools developed, the results obtained, and the lessons learned.

Speaker: Daniel Hernandez Montesinos (CERN)

BE_seminar_bPOL12V.pptx

09:50 → 10:00 Questions and Answers