Speaker
Description
The Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) is a sampling hadronic calorimeter covering the central region of the ATLAS experiment, using steel absorbers and plastic scintillators as the active medium. It is being extensively upgraded to meet the demands of the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), expected to start operation in 2030. The HL-LHC will deliver significantly increased instantaneous luminosity, resulting in higher data rates, elevated radiation levels, and challenging pile-up conditions. To address these requirements, both on-detector and off-detector TileCal electronics will be fully replaced during the Long Shutdown 3 period (2026–2030).
In the upgraded system, signals from all photomultiplier tubes will be continuously digitized and transmitted at 40 MHz to the back-end electronics, where they are reconstructed and provided to the first-level trigger. This architecture enables improved signal precision and supports the implementation of more advanced trigger algorithms. The new front-end electronics are based on radiation-tolerant commercial components, featuring modular and redundant designs to enhance reliability. Data transmission, timing, and control are implemented using modern FPGA-based systems and high-speed optical links operating at up to 9.6 Gb/s.
The TileCal upgrade program is supported by extensive research and development, including test-beam campaigns since 2015. The status of the ongoing developments for both on- and off-detector systems, together with the expected performance and results from test-beam studies of the electronics prototypes, will be presented.