(Periodic meeting on MCC project progress)
Present: Roberto Beccherle, Giovanni Darbo, Guido Gagliardi, Paolo Morettini, Carlo Schiavi.
Interface between SimPix and VCS still has problem. It works at 40x1 Mb/s but not with the other DTO/DTO2 transmission speeds. Roberto claims that the problem should be easy to fix. No more advancement on the update of the netlist with the changes for the MCC-I2.
Decision on specs:
The other specs agreed with are listed in the appendix.
MCC-I2 SimPix model (Carlo), SimPix script and SimPix program (Paolo) will be updated to simulate the new design according to spec changes of appendix.
Giacomo will be available to come to Genova before the end of February.
There is some concern on the schedule for the chip submission, we still have some margin, but usually each step requires more time than foreseen.
We discussed with Kostas and Federico Faccio about the analysis carried on by Guido on the MCC-I1 irradiated last summer and to compare the results with the APV25 chip of CMS. Guido will write an ATLAS note with our measurements. A limited effort will be tried to match the results we have at 1.8 and 2.2 V of VDD by simulating injected charge in the Spice models of the SRAM and of the FF memory cells. Kostas is interested in doing such simulation in January. We will decide if we will make a paper for Nucl. Instr. and Meth. after the ATLAS note.
Next year we will have two periods of irradiation that will involve the MCC-I2 (one in July with the Module and one in October with the MCC-I2 stand alone). The Module irradiation will use the TPLL/TPCC. It would be possible to do system studies of SEU by digital injection on known pixels and study the results coming out. To do that the TPLL must be operated in raw mode. Paolo will look at the possibilities and we will discuss and take some decision at the February Pixel Week. In October we will use the MCCex with the usual ancillary boards. In this case we will concentrate on effect of SEU on the event building by using simulated events in WrReceiver mode. It is probably less efficient that using the Module, but it will add some more information. Guido will give priority at the Hardware / Software setup for the 2003 irradiation campaign, starting from the end of January.
Appendix: Specification changes from MCC-I1 to MCC-I2
1_1111_FFFF_FFFF_MMMM_MMMM.
This flag will be the only FE-FLAG implemented in the MCC-I2. It allows 8-bits reserved for the FE chip plus 8 for the MCC itself. The old FE-FLAG (1_1110_FFFF_MMMM) will be kept for compatibility with MCC-I1.
Implications:
Hardware (ROD, TPLL) and Software (TurboDAQ, SimPix, DAQ-1, etc...) will have to implement the modifications of the protocol. Backward compatibility with MCC-I1 equipped modules, even if we decide to use these chips in part of the final experiment, will be ensured by the fact that MCC-I1 will never produce a NULL word.
Implications:
Hardware (ROD, TPLL) does not require any change.
Software (TurboDAQ, SimPix, DAQ-1, etc...) will have to implement these modifications. The new format is the only one to be implemented as it is automatically compatible with both formats.