Lifetime Study of COTS ADC for SBND LAr TPC Readout Electronics

Abstract

Short Baseline Near Detector (SBND), which is a 260-ton LAr TPC as near detector in Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program, consists of 11,264 TPC readout channels. As an enabling technology for noble liquid detectors in neutrino experiments, cold electronics developed for extremely low temperature (77K - 89K) decouples the electrode and cryostat design from the readout design. With front-end electronics integrated with detector electrodes, the noise is independent of the fiducial volume and about half as with electronics at room temperature. Digitization and signal multiplexing to high speed serial links inside cryostat result in large reduction in the quantity of cables (less outgassing) and the number of feed-throughs, therefore minimize the penetration and simplify the cryostat design. Being considered as an option for the TPC readout, several Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) ADC chips have been identified as good candidates for operation in cryogenic temperature after initial screening test. Because Hot Carrier Effects (HCE) degrades CMOS device lifetime, one candidate, ADI AD7274 fabricated in TSMC 350nm CMOS technology, of which lifetime at cryogenic temperature is studied. The lifetime study includes two phases, the exploratory phase and the validation phase. This paper describes the test method, test setup, observations in the exploratory phase and the validation phase. Based on the current test data, the preliminary lifetime projection of AD7274 is about 6.1 $\times$ $10^6$ years at 2.5V operation at cryogenic temperature, which means the HCE degradation is negligible during the SBND service life.