ATLAS pixel module burn-in system

Introduction

This ATLAS pixel module burn-in system consists of a hardware component, the Supply and Readout/Fanout (SuRF) board, and a software component, the ATLAS Module Burn-in Shell (AMBuSh). The SuRF board supplies four modules with power and HV and connects them to a TPCC channel. A host computer (usually the same computer that controls the TPCC) controls the SuRF board via USB. The board can exercise the modules by running them at different operating voltages. It continuously monitors the supply currents and module temperature.

The SuRF board

The SuRF board comes with documentation in PS, PDF and HTML format. For SuRF II there is no documentation yet, but there are schematics here, here, here, here, and here.

When you are issued your SuRF board, you are asked to repeat the following creed: This is my board. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Please check the table of boards to find out your board's idiosyncrasies; you may spare yourself untold grief.

AMBuSh

The ATLAS pixel module burn-in software (AMBuSh) is available here. The current release is 0.3.4.

(Very preliminary, mostly useless) AMBuSh documentation exists in PS, PDF and HTML format. I'll try to do something about the preliminarity and uselessness soon.

Quick instructions for getting started on windows

To make AMBuSh run on windows, you need to do the following:

  1. Get TurboDAQ 5.3 or newer.
  2. Get the windows SuRF board driver from Joe Virzi and install it (brief instructions).
  3. Build pontifex, a socket-driven windows binary that channels between AMBuSh and Joe's driver. Brief compiling instructions are here. Run pontifex.
  4. Download and install the Maurice-compiled collection of cygwin packages (brief instructions).
  5. Get ambush. Follow these instructions to build ambush. Then follow the getting started quickly instructions in the SuRF board manual, making sure to read the boxed warnings.
  6. AMBuSh prints its version on startup; please check that you have the latest release, currently AMBuSh 0.3. If AMBuSh doesn't print anything on startup, that means it's ancient and needs to be updated.
  7. AMBuSh reads local configuration settings from ~/.ambush/config on startup. (If it can't find that file, it assumes a set of defaults that's not documented yet ...) The file sample.config in the main AMBuSh directory is an example of what the configuration file should look like.
  8. We've succeeded in running a proof-of-principle burn-in at LBL. If you'd like to try one too, read this.

Help

For help, complaints and suggestions contact Maurice Garcia-Sciveres and Johannes Mülmenstädt.

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