E. Meschi

SVT: an online silicon vertex tracker for the CDF upgrade

The SVT is an online tracker for the CDF upgrade which will reconstruct 2D tracks using information from the Silicon VerteX detector (SVXII) and Central Outer Tracker (COT). The precision measurement of the track impact parameter will then be used to select and record large samples of B hadrons. We discuss the overall architecture, algorithms, and hardware implementation of the system.

Silicon vertex tracker: a fast precise tracking trigger for CDF

The Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT), currently being built for the CDF II experiment, is a hardware device that reconstructs 2-D tracks online using measurements from the Silicon Vertex Detector (SVXII) and the Central Outer Tracker (COT). The precise measurement of the impact parameter of the SVT tracks will allow, for the first time in a hadron collider environment, to trigger on events containing B hadrons that are very important for many studies, such as CP violation in the b sector and searching for new heavy particles decaying to b . In this report we describe the overall architecture, algorithms and the hardware implementation of the SVT.

Performance of the CDF online silicon vertex tracker

The Online Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) is the new trigger processor dedicated to the 2-D reconstruction of charged particle trajectories at the Level 2 of the CDF trigger. The SVT links the digitized pulse heights found within the Silicon Vertex detector to the tracks reconstructed in the Central Outer Tracker by the Level 1 Fast Track finder. Preliminary tests of the system took place during the October 2000 commissioning run of the Tevatron Collider. During the April-October 2001 data taking SVT was fully assembled and it was possible to obtain clearer and more important results on the performance of the system. In this paper we review the tracking algorithms implemented in the SVT and we report on the performance achieved during the early phase of run II.

Initial experience with the CDF SVT trigger

The Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) is a device that works inside the CDF Level 2 trigger to find and fit tracks in real time using the central silicon vertex detector information. SVT starts from tracks found by the Level 1 central chamber fast trigger and adds the silicon information to compute transverse track parameters with offline quality in about . The CDF SVT is fully installed and functional and has been exercised with real data during the spring and summer 2001. It is a complex digital device of more than 100 VME boards that performs a dramatic data reduction (only about one event in a thousand is accepted by the trigger). Diagnosing rare failures poses a special challenge and SVT internal data flow is monitored by dedicated hardware and software. This paper briefly covers the SVT architecture and design and reports on the SVT building/commissioning experience (hardware and software) and on the first results from the initial running.

A prototype of programmable associative memory for track finding

We present a device, based on the concept of associative memory for pattern recognition, dedicated to on-line track finding in high-energy physics experiments. A large pattern bank, describing all possible tracks, can be organized into field programmable gate arrays where all patterns are compared in parallel to data coming from the detector during readout. Patterns, recognized among 2/sup 66/ possible combinations, are output in a few 30 MHz clock cycles. Programmability results in a flexible, simple architecture and it allows one to keep up smoothly with technology improvements. A 64 PAM array has been assembled on a prototype VME board and fully tested up to 30 MHz.

The CDF online Silicon Vertex Tracker

Reference EPFL-ARTICLE-173148 URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0112141 Record created on 2011-12-23, modified on 2017-05-12