Electronics reorganization

1. Electronics reorganization • This has been “in the air” since quite some time • General presentation by Lucie Linssen and Allain Gonidec made in senior staff meeting November 28 2006. • Finalization and commissioning of LHC experiments critical and complicated • Long term future of CERN depends critically on this. • CERN has a double role as host lab. and collaborating institute • Maintenance and effective running of experiments must be assured • Reduction in people over the next few years • Many retirements, replacements not guaranteed because of difficult financial situation • LD posts ending over the next few years. We can hopefully keep a significant part • Some groups already now getting below critical mass • Funding for additional manpower (keeping LD’s) not yet clear (DG white paper) • Assure critical mass and environment to make developments and maintain services for future programs: SLHC upgrades (~2015), P326, ILC,CLIC,etc. • Allow flexible and smooth transition from finalization – commissioning to a new R&D phase also covering maintenance slide 1

2. Relation with LHC experiments • Priorities of the experiments (and us) • Make the experiment work • Make the experiment work well • Make the …....... • Maintain the experiments • Emergency upgrades (never really officially mentioned) • R&D for SLHC • Good relation with LHC experiments needed to make a reorganization of the PH electronics possible/successful • Multiple discussions with the experiments have been made • Most agrees that current situation is unstable long term • Transition to new structure most be handled smoothly to assure that current projects/activities will be finalized with no additional delays. • Technical coordinators and electronics coordinators of the LHC experiments have defined many valuable requirements and recommendations to such an electronics group • How to control and monitor activities and resources in a common electronics group • Internal structure • Continuous discussions with the experiments will be needed • Electronics coordinators will be the major “electronics” interface to the experiments • Global project management • Electronics coordinators handles electronics coordination across the whole collaboration, of which CERN is only a part. slide 2

3. PH electronics group • Get people together working in the same field to have synergy, maintain critical mass in key technologies and when possible use common solutions and building blocks • We must not forget that we are one of many groups making electronics for experiments • Being at CERN gives us certain obligations and expected roles: General support, Infrastructure, Key technologies, “fire brigade”. • Discussions with many electronics people in PH have confirmed the need/whish to get the electronics people together in a single unit and not being dispersed in small independent units. • CERN PH have electronics expertise that is vital for the HEP community to make the LHC experiments work and build upgrades and new experiments. • On-detector: front-ends, radiation hard electronics, integration within detector, hybrids, low mass, power distribution, cooling, Definition and use of front-end ASIC’s, get data off detector, control and monitoring, qualification – reliability, etc. • Off-detector: large and complicated electronics modules, collect data from detectors, DAQ and controls interface, Use of FPGA’s and standard commercial components, etc. • Micro electronics: Analog and digital IC design, Radiation effects, radiation qualification, Access to technology, libraries, IP blocks, tools, testing and qualification, etc. • Opto electronics: lasers, receivers, radiation effects, protocols, optical infrastructure, etc. • Infrastructure: Racks, crates, power supplies, Cabling , • Instrumentation: lab instrumentation, test beam instrumentation (pool) • Allow/encourage people to work across their defined main expertise. • Large projects need experts from different electronics fields • Mobility between sections according to needs (projects) • Projects will be organized across sections according to needs • Current PH electronics groups: ~65 staff + ~30 fellows, students, etc. slide 3

4. Definition of sections • Number of sections: 3 – 6 seems reasonable • A flat group of ~65 staff was also considered but found difficult/impossible to manage/handle with the current project structure (~55 ongoing projects) • Basic principle of sections • Not experiment wise as this is what we want to change • According to specialization • Analog, Digital, links, infrastructure • According to detector type • Micro electronics, systems, infrastructure • System1, System2, , ,system N • Micro-electronics, Front-end systems, Back-end systems • Good balance between engineers and technicians according to needs in each specific section • Role of sections are to maintain expertise in defined fields and assure required infrastructure and services for this is available (equipment, labs, tools, training, etc) • Assure service oriented functions related to specific field (MPW service, instrumentation pool, power supply, assembly, tools, testing, crates, etc.) • Participate in projects • Plan reorganization for estimated manpower situation in ~2009 (not today) • Somewhere between optimistic and pessimistic assumptions • Required infrastructure for sections • Offices, visitors, general labs, specialized labs (e.g. sub-detector labs, clean rooms) • Geographical location • Move people in same section together.Two options being studied • Whole group in same building • People in same section in same building/corridor and sections not far from each other slide 4

5. Electronics Systems for Experiments (ESE) PH ATLAS ALICE Electronics steering group “Political” project steering, 2 times per year Electronics coordination board Technical project steering, 2 times per month CMS LHCb ESE group Jorgen Christiansen Mike Letheren Total staff: 63 Fixed target FE: Front-End Philippe Farthouat Staff: 19 -> ~14 MI: Micro-electronics Alessandro Marchioro Staff: 16 -> ~13 BE: Back-End Francois Vasey Staff: 26 -> ~18 slide 5

6. Global project management Electronics Steering Group (ESG): “Political” control • Members: • PH deputy department head (chair) • Technical coordinators • Electronics coordinators • ESE group leader • Mandate: • Review of new projects and activities and their approval • Long term follow-up on current projects and activities • Change of major priorities when needed • Decisions: taken by mutual agreement, with PH deputy head making final decision in case of disagreement. • Meetings: Two times per year and in case of specific emergencies. Electronics Coordination Board (ECB): “Technical” control • Members • ESE group leader (chair) • Electronics coordinators • ESE sections leaders • Project/service leaders called in according to needs • Mandate • Short term follow up and change of short term priorities when needed. • Definition of common project proposals and assignment of common project specification groups across experiments. • Decisions: Taken by mutual agreement. In case of major disagreement PH deputy head is informed about situation and an electronics steering group meeting can be called to clarify situation. • Meetings: on a monthly basis slide 6

7. ESE group management Group leader • Assignment of resources within group, in consultancy with section leaders and project leaders. • Chair of electronics coordination board • Overall monitoring of projects and services • Organization of regular group meetings and technical seminars • Assigned for a period of maximum 3 years by PH management (renewable) • Group leader: Jorgen Christiansen with Mike Letheren as deputy Section leaders • General supervision of staff/fellows/students in sections • Organization of services handled by section • Detailed supervision (and MARS) of section members can be delegated to senior members of the section (as sections now relatively large). • Maintain and develop expertise and infrastructure in given technology domain • Assigned for a period of maximum 3 years by PH management (renewable) • MIC: Alessandro Marchioro • Front-end: Philippe Farthouat • Back-end: Francois Vasey Project leaders • Technical responsibility of project and supervision of project team • Detailed specifications and time schedule of project • Planning and handling of project funding • If not staff member of PH-ESE: Assigned by experiment • If staff member of PH-ESE: Assigned by GL in consultation with electronics coordination board slide 7

8. Front-end Systems (FE) Mission: Front-end (on-detector) electronics systems for CERN experiments. • Specify, design, test, qualify, produce, install, commission and maintain on-detector front-end systems in collaboration with CERN experiments. • Specify and participate in design of required ASIC’s. • Expertise: • Detector – front-end interface and integration. • Front-end readout systems • On-detector trigger pre-processing • Compact and low mass hybrid technologies. • Radiation tolerance and qualification. • EMC and magnetic field tolerance. • On-detector power distribution • Quality assurance and reliability of electronics with difficult access. Manpower : 2007 2009 • Engineers: 13 ~9 • Technicians: 6 ~5 • Fell, stud, PJAS 4 ? Infrastructure: • General Labs • Access to clean rooms according to needs • Access to bonding facilities/services according to needs (DT2) • Experiment labs ? • ATLAS labs: TRT • CMS labs: None • Alice labs: TPC and pixel setup workbenches, (Alice pixel and TPC labs within experiment), • LHCb labs: Small HPD test setup (RICH lab within LHCb). slide 8

9. Microelectronics (MI) Mission: Micro electronics technology and design for CERN experiments • Design, test, qualify, produce, and support analog/digital front-end ASIC’s requested/needed by experiments. • Specify in collaboration with experiments, design, qualify, produce and support common rad hard components. • Micro electronics service to HEP community • Expertise - services: • Radiation effects and radiation hard IC design. • IC technology and IC design. • Technology access and MPW service for HEP community. • Rad hard libraries and IP blocks for HEP community. • CAE for IC design. • Testing and qualification of IC’s. • IC packaging and industrial contacts. Manpower : 2007 2009 • Engineers: 13 ~11 • Technicians: 3 2 • Fell, stud, PJAS 13 ? Infrastructure: • General Labs • IC tester + wafer prober in clean room • Xray and electron gun • Medipix Xray • Sun computer room • Bare Wafer and IC storage slide 9

10. Back-end Systems (BE) Mission: Back-end (off-detector) electronics systems for CERN experiments + Pool • Specify, design, test, qualify, produce, install and maintain back-end electronics systems in collaboration with experiments. • Design, test, produce, qualify and install optical links and infrastructure for experiments. • Specify, tender, test, purchase and define maintenance schemes for crates, racks and bulk LV power supplies for use in non radiation environments. • Instrument Pool and purchase of general instrumentation. • Expertise: • DAQ interface. • Control system interface. • Global trigger systems. • Large complicated board design. • FPGA, HDL design and firmware. • Optical links, radiation hardness issues of optical components and opto infrastructure • Power distribution systems and related cooling • Crates and backplane busses • Rack cooling, power, monitoring • General instrumentation (Pool) Manpower : 2007 2009 • Engineers: 13 ~8 • Technicians: 13 ~10 • Fell, stud, PJAS 6 ? Infrastructure: • General labs • Opto lab. • Rack lab. • Crate/LV PS lab • Pool reception + storage + test • Temperature cycling chamber lab. • Repair facilities for Wiener and CAEN • Experiment labs: • ATLAS labs: L1 trigger • CMS labs: CMS optical link test benches, Preshower ?, GCT ?, TTC ? • Alice labs: DDL test bench ? • LHCb labs: None slide 10

11. Handle projects/activities • General project management handled in electronics steering group • Common projects: Electronics group and PH management with feedback and acceptance from experiments • Experiment specific: Defined between ESE and experiment with acceptance by PH management • Generic R&D: Initiated within ESE to maintain expertise with guidance/acceptance from PH management and Experiments • Current number of active “projects”: 54 ! • Many “soon finished” • 52 FTE out of 62 directly counted in current projects • Remaining manpower used for support/maintenance of previous projects, tools, internal services, internal infrastructure, administration, etc. • Finalized projects: 27 (mainly ASIC’s) • Continued support and maintenance must be assured slide 11

12. CERN PH participation in electronics projects • Common: • Finalized: TTCrx, GOL, QPLL, HPTDC, Delay25, TTCrq • On-going: TTC machine interface, crate and power supply purchase, rack control and monitoring, Pool, IC technology access and MPW • New: GBT – versatile link, powering, 0.13um technology access and radiation qualification • ATLAS: • Finalized: TTCvi, DTMROC, TRT front-end, ABCD SCT front-end ASIC, ELMB • On-going: Electronics coordination, TRT back end and services, S-link, Central trigger processor, Local trigger interface, roman pots, SCT cooling system, EMC, DAQ interfacing, Mains power distribution • CMS: • Finalized: CCU, DCU, Laser driver, Optical receiver, LVDS mux, Ecal ADC, Preshower Pace and K chips. • On-going: Electronics coordination , Ecal, Global calorimeter trigger, Preshower, Tracker analog links, Digital control and readout links, TTC system, FEC control interface, Counting house • ALICE: • Finalized: TOF chips, Gassiplex, Pixel chip and control chips, Altro TPC chip • On-going: Electronics coordination, Pixel detector front-end and readout, TPC front-end and readout, DAQ data link, Phos electronics • LHCb: • Finalized: Muon front-end chip, HPD pixel chip • On-going: Electronics coordination, Infrastructure installation, RICH electronics integration, Velo electronics integration, CPU farm Fan monitoring • Other: • Ongoing: Totem electronics coordination, Totem front-end chip, P326, Medical, technology transfer, EUDET-TPC, EUDET-time pix, etc. This adds up to an awful lot: 27 finalized, 54 ongoing, 10 new (plus more coming) slide 12

13. Future projects • Future projects will in many cases involve people across sections and groups. • Projects must define: (project definition, workpackage, etc.) • Final goal • Start, manpower, resources, end date, etc, • When does a project end ?: • When design finished and prototype verified ?. Production finalized ?. Installed and working ?. Fully commissioned ?. Firmware changes ?. When experiment closed down – Maintenance and repairs • Project leaders are not necessarily in same section or group as individuals working on the project. • New projects • Common: versatile - GBT optical link, Technology access, IP blocks, radiation hard power distribution, etc. • How does one reach agreement on specification of these Electronics coordinators + experts ? • Funding, manpower allocation ? (DG white paper, LHCC peer review ?) • Experiment specific: tracker upgrades, trigger, ? slide 13

14. Phase across domains • Different phases in the four electronics domains • R&D: R&D • Final design + qualification: Des • Production: Prod • Installation: Ins • Commissioning: Com • Maintenance: Main • Other: Industrial contacts, tenders. Test systems • We have four very large experiments starting all at the same time !. System definitions Start of experiment ASIC R&D Des Prod ASIC designers ready to start R&D and new designs before other sectors offloaded R&D Des Prod Ins Com On-detector Main Des Prod Ins Com Off-detector Readout test systems for R&D in on-detector and ASIC’s Main Purchasing Infrastructure Industrial contacts Ins Com Main Des ~ 10 years (can be smaller for smaller experiments) slide 14

15. How does this fit with new set of major experiments (SLHC) ASIC designers used as: Electronics coordinators, Board designers, Cooling systems, Specialists on radiation qualification, Evaluation of new technologies, Technology transfer, new experiments (NA48) Etc. Today ASIC On-detector Off-detector Infrastructure Infrastructure group will most likely have dip in activity after experiments are up and running (maintenance ?). Utilize available manpower together with off-detector to make test and verification systems during R&D phase. PROBLEM: On and Off detector designers (system designers) not much available during early R&D for next experiments slide 15

16. Other groups related to PH electronics • IT CAE support • Current assumption is that this CAE support is maintained in IT. • TS-DEM • Board layout service • PCB and hybrid production and test (internal or external) • Assembly workshop for prototypes and repairs • ESE group must establish a good working relation with this service • Silicon facility in DT2 (bond lab.) • Border between detector and electronics • IT-CO: Controls of experiments • Not really electronics • Controls (gas and magnets) in DT1 • Not really electronics • Electronics in machine sector • Currently not much communication with these electronics designers (spread in many specialized units) • No intention from our side to merge with this, but better communication could always be useful. slide 16

17. General schedule • Discussions with senior electronics designers (done) • General presentation made in senior staff (done) • Discussions with experiments (done) • Definition of project/resource interface between experiments and new electronics group. (done) • Make overview of current electronics projects/commitments in PH (done) • Definition of general structure and presentation to experiments (done) • Presentation of general group structure to group members (today) • Inform individuals of their proposed assignment to sections by current group leaders (within this or next week) • Detailed structure forwarded to all group members • Section meetings in the new sections • Multiple group and section meetings will follow • First combined steering group and coordination board meeting • Structure put in place: July 2007 • Moving new sections together (during autumn 2007 or whenever compatible with LHC work) • Getting the new group/sections operational slide 17

18. Few basic questions seen from us electronics designers • Yet another re-organization, will it change anything for us ? • Not immediately, but will have effects on how we organize new projects and maintenance. • Must not disturb current projects, but some already now have serious lack of manpower so some re-shuffling may be needed. • Will this be the last re-organization of PH electronics: Most likely not, we must adapt to the current situation which will depend strongly on future major CERN projects (SLHC, CLIC, ?). Hopefully defined structure can stay valid for ~10 years. • Will it really improve things having people with same expertise in same section ? • Feedback from engineers shows that this is a whish among most electronics designers to stay up to date. • Find good common solutions to the same technical problem (e.g. common projects) • Use of common tools, techniques, design approaches, etc. • Daily coffees with colleagues is what allows a good exchange of experience and ideas within a given field. • How will I now have good contacts with people working on same project ? • Responsibility of project leaders (and yourself) • People working on same project will naturally tend to meet/communicate constantly. • Will it force me to work in a given field only ? • We for sure always need people with broad experience to make our large and complicated systems. • Experts in specific fields also vital for us to make our systems. • Mobility across sections will be easier, as now within same group. The problem of the hole left behind when somebody changes will for sure still exist. • Depends on needs within projects. • Will we still stay “earmarked” with the experiment we currently work for ?. • Depends on new projects and CERN responsibilities within these. People will not by default be assigned to projects for same experiment.Participation in other experiments/projects is a good experience for all of us. • There will most likely still be a tendency to work with an experiment/people one has worked with in the past. • When, how, and who will define which projects and project responsibilities will be taken care of by us ? • This is as usual a complicated political/technical/funding related subject • Emphasis will be given to: • Common projects across experiments (TTC, optical links, radiation tolerance, Power distribution, technology, etc.) • Where specific expertise is available at CERN ( Micro-electronics, detector types, hybrids, systems ) • Host lab. responsibilities: Infrastructure, maintenance, and services • Funding for common projects to be clarified (DG white paper money and manpower request) • PH management, electronics coordinators and you will be instrumental for this. slide 18

19. Lots of very interesting challenges ahead of us making the electronics of world wide unique experiments work and prepare the next generation slide 19

20. Feedback • Questions/comments/criticism: Now, or • Always welcome in my office • I will unfortunately be absent for the next 2 ½ weeks. • Counts on you all to help to get this to work out. • Some of you may wonder who I am • Electronics engineer specialized in computer architecture, DSP, chip design, high speed logic • Master thesis in sonar and signal processing. No PHD • 3 years work as system and chip designer in a Danish startup company Scantest making special testing systems for concurrent test and burn-in of IC’s. • Started 4 people, ended up with ~15, and then crash • Came to CERN in 1989 • ~15 years working in CERN micro electronics group: Fastbus interface, TDC’s, TTCrx, IC test system, etc. • ~8 years as LHCb electronics coordinator • Front-end architecture definition, Radiation tolerance policy, Lots of architecture, design and production readiness reviews (~50), EMC and grounding, Common LV power supply system, LECC, installation of electronics infrastructure and cabling, DSS, etc. • Many good years with fantastic collaboration with CERN and world wide external colleagues • Wants to stay in touch with real electronics. slide 20