TWEPP26 Topical Workshop on Electronics for Particle Physics

Session

Power

1 Oct 2026, 09:00

Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain

119. Anomalies and criticalities discovered in the bPOL12V_V6 DC-DC converter: causes and implications.

Antonio Ocarino

01/10/2026, 09:00

Power - Power, Grounding and Shielding

Oral

bPOL12V_V6 is the production-grade version of a radiation-tolerant DC-DC buck converter designed in a commercial 350 nm high-voltage CMOS technology for HL-LHC front-end electronics supply, with over 100k units manufactured. In July 2025, a critical failure mode was identified during ATLAS ITk stave/petal testing: upon re-enabling after a post-irradiation time spent biased but disabled, the...

52. Qualification tests of the bPOL12V_V6 “sudden failure” issue

Daniel Hernandez Montesinos (CERN)

01/10/2026, 09:20

Power - Power, Grounding and Shielding

Oral

The bPOL12V is a radiation-tolerant DC-DC converter designed for use in high-energy physics experiments, providing low power to the front-electronics of various HL-LHC subdetectors. In 2024, the bPOL12V_V6 was conceived to be the final version, with over 100k units produced. However, a design issue known as “sudden failure” was identified during the ATLAS ITk tests: devices irradiated to 70...

159. How bPOL12V nearly destroyed the ITk Strip detector

Dr Dennis Sperlich (University of Siegen)

01/10/2026, 09:40

Power - Power, Grounding and Shielding

Oral

The ATLAS Phase‑2 silicon‑strip tracker will power its modules with a point‑of‑load DC‑DC converter (bPOL12V) mounted directly on the sensor. Irradiation tests (50 Mrad) revealed a radiation‑induced defect that drastically shortens the safe standby time of the ASIC during cold operation. In power‑down mode the defect appears after only 10–120 min, destroying the chip. Without mitigation,...

77. HGCAL exposure, risk assessment and strategy to bPOL12V_V6 radiation sensitivities

Pablo Daniel Antoszczuk (CERN)

01/10/2026, 11:20

Power - Power, Grounding and Shielding

Oral

The low-voltage supply of the High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) Phase-2 upgrade of CMS relies heavily on the bPOL12V ASIC for the front-end electronics of the detector. The recently discovered radiation weakness in bPOL12V poses a significant challenge for HGCAL, as over 62k bPOL12V are needed, exposed to a very heterogeneous radiation field up to 40Mrad. With the detector in production...

111. bPOL12V_FX1: Design and Radiation Qualification of a 12 V Point-of-Load DC/DC Converter in 350 nm CMOS

Marta Macaluso

01/10/2026, 11:40

ASIC

Oral

The bPOL12V_FX1 is a radiation-tolerant buck Point-of-Load DC/DC step-down converter manufactured in a commercial 350 nm high-voltage CMOS process and intended for powering HL-LHC front-end electronics. It was developed to supersede the bPOL12V_V6, which exhibited output voltage regulation failures under specific Total Ionizing Dose (TID), bias, and thermal conditions. Implemented in a...

79. CMS ECAL Phase-2 upgrade: characterisation and stability analysis of a three-stage low-voltage power-conversion system

Liv Anke Richter (ETH Zurich (CH))

01/10/2026, 12:00

Power - Power, Grounding and Shielding

Oral

The upgrade of the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter barrel for operation at HL-LHC requires a new three-stage low-voltage power-conversion system (LVPCS). We present the characterisation and stability analysis of this cascade LVPCS, performed by combining average small-signal modelling, SPICE simulation, and vector network analyser (Bode100) measurement, employing a custom parallel-injection...