Speakers
Description
This paper examines the latest advancements in power supply technologies for the HL-LHC, particularly focusing on the EASY6000 power supply system. Highlighted for its enhanced radiation tolerance, the system supports safe and efficient operations over the HL-LHC's extended lifespan. The study evaluates the system's performance in challenging environments, essential for optimizing power delivery to new detectors' front-end. The research, conducted over five years by CAEN, involved extensive testing of components likewise complete boards in varied radiation fields and magnetic orientations. It showcases innovative techniques and progresses ensuring efficient power delivery for future high-energy physics experiments.
Summary (500 words)
This paper explores the latest advancements in power supply technologies designed for the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), focusing on the new EASY power supply system. Notable for its enhanced radiation tolerance: up to 150 Gy, 3x1011 HeH/cm2, 1.5x1012 Neq/cm2, to cover all experimental needs for the new LHC phase that will have radiation levels much higher thanks to the increased instantaneous luminosity. This system ensures safe and efficient operation throughout the HL-LHC's extended lifespan with expected yearly failures to be below 3% aiming at exceeding the 300 000 hours MTBF generally required by the experiments. With a keen emphasis on power density and efficiency, this research evaluates the system's performance in challenging environments to optimize power delivery to the front-end of new detectors.
The evolution of high-energy physics experiments necessitates granularity far exceeding current standards, demanding sophisticated electronics for powering detectors and processing vast amounts of data. Key parameters such as space constraints, cabling, cooling, and overall efficiency are critical in designing these experiments to achieve superior data acquisition performance.
A leap forward has been achieved in power density reaching almost 0.3 W/cm3 for ELV modules (~10 V), which double previous generation of power supplies. This task proved to be a challenge that had to be addressed improving cooling and efficiency in magnetic fields, targeting 90% DC/DC efficiency in fields up to 0.5 T. On the other hand, HV (from 1 kV to 15 kV) boards important parameters are channel density and noise, keeping the same 4 kV isolation, we were able to increase the channel density by 33% from 12 per board to 16 (or 160 per 6U crate). The increased channel density necessitated a revision of the cooling and power distribution to maintain or enhance the previously achieved noise levels (~ 10 mVpp).
These advancements stem from a five-year R&D campaign involving extensive testing in collaboration with CERN and INFN. Tests included exposure to one radiation type at a time —neutron, gamma, and protons (up to 600 Gy, 3x1012 HeH/cm2, 1x1013 Neq/cm2)—, as well as evaluations in magnetic fields up to 1 T. Both individual components (e.g., ADCs, FPGAs, ambient sensors) and complete circuits were tested to validate system reliability under harsh operating conditions.
Key mitigation strategies—such as redundancy and single-event upset (SEU) protections—were implemented to ensure robust performance. These choices enabled the design of power supplies that meet the HL-LHC’s stringent requirements for compactness, efficiency, and long-term operational stability.
The talk will comprehensively review the power supplies developed by CAEN, spanning from extremely-low-voltage (LEV) and high-power liquid-cooled systems (approximately 48 V and 1800 W) to high-voltage (HV) systems (approximately 15 kV), including mixed boards that seamlessly integrate LV and HV components based on detectors specific requirements.
The discussion will encompass the outcomes of test campaigns, demonstrating achieved performance metrics such as communication speed, power density, energy efficiency, and noise figure.
