arXiv subjects

L. E. Ardila-Perez

Publications and source records attributed to L. E. Ardila-Perez.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Serenity-S1, a CMS Tracker Readout and Data Processing Card for HL-LHC

The CERN Large Hadron Collider will be upgraded to the High-Luminosity LHC, increasing the particle-collision rate and the demands on detector readout. A key element of this upgrade is the new CMS Tracker, whose silicon sensors will generate data at an aggregate rate of about 10 TB/s. This data must be routed efficiently to processing systems and filtered before storage. Serenity-S1 is an ATCA readout and data-processing card based on an AMD Virtex UltraScale+ VU13P FPGA with 128 high-speed serial transceivers. Twenty 12-channel Samtec FireFly optical modules provide up to 120 transmit and 120 receive channels at line rates of up to 25 Gb/s, while an additional optical module supports CMS Tracker links at up to 10 Gb/s per channel. The modular optical layout, combined with the large FPGA, makes Serenity-S1 suitable for several applications within and beyond CMS. ATCA provides the power and cooling required for operation in the CMS service cavern. Low-level management and the IPMI interface are provided by an OpenIPMC mezzanine, while an AMD Kria K26 system-on-module running AlmaLinux 9 performs higher-level board management and application control. Firmware and software frameworks provide common infrastructure so that users can focus on application-specific logic. The paper describes the hardware, firmware and software architecture of Serenity-S1 and its deployment in CMS Tracker integration and R&D activities.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2026

Background of the BULLKID detector array operated with moderate shield on surface

We present the operation with moderate radiation shield in a surface laboratory of BULLKID (BULky and Low-threshold Kinetic Inductance Detector), a cryogenic detector for searches of light Dark Matter or Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering. The detector consists of an array of 60 cubic silicon particle absorbers of 0.34 g each, sensed by cryogenic kinetic inductance detectors. The analysis presented focuses on data from 15 elements of the array, with two central units used to evaluate the background and with their surrounding elements used as veto. The low energy spectrum resulting from an exposure of 290 hours to ambient backgrounds, acquired with the use of external and internal radiation shields, is compatible with the simulations at the level of $(6.8\pm0.4\,{\rm stat.}\pm0.1\,{\rm syst.})\times10^4$ counts / keV kg days from 2 keV down to an energy of 600 eV. The region between 225 eV and 600 eV shows a rise in background in disagreement with the simulations, while not sharing some of the key traits of the low energy excess observed in other cryogenic experiments. The high energy spectrum shape is in overall agreement with the simulations and displays the typical particle-induced X-ray emission of the surrounding lead.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2026

Projected sensitivity to light WIMP-like particles of the BULLKID-DM experiment

BULLKID-DM is an experiment designed for the direct searches of particle dark matter candidates with mass around 1 GeV, or below, and cross-section with nucleons smaller than $10^{-40}$ cm$^2$. The detector consists of a stack of diced silicon wafers, acting as arrays of particle absorbers, sensed by multiplexed Kinetic Inductance Detectors. The target will amount to 800 g subdivided in more than 2000 silicon dice, with the aim of controlling the background from natural radioactivity by creating a fully active structure and by applying fiducialization techniques. In this work we present the projected sensitivity of BULLKID-DM to light WIMP-like particles considering also the other future experiments in the field.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2025

Energy calibration of bulk events in the BULLKID detector

BULLKID is a cryogenic, solid-state detector designed for direct searches of particle Dark Matter candidates, with mass $\lesssim 1$ GeV/c$^2$, and coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering. It is based on an array of dice carved in 5 mm thick silicon crystal, sensed by phonon-mediated Kinetic Inductance Detectors. In previous works, the array was calibrated with bursts of optical photons, which are absorbed in the first hundreds nanometers of the dice and give rise to surface events. In this work, we present the reconstruction of bulk events through the 59.5 keV $γ$-ray generated by an $^{241}$Am source, which emulates more closely the interaction of Dark Matter and neutrinos. The peak resolution is $5\%~(σ)$ and its position is shifted by less than $10\%$ with respect to the optical calibration. We observe that the resolution is further improved by a factor $2$ combining the signal from neighboring dice. These results confirm the performance of the detector in view of the physics goals of the BULLKID-DM experiment for dark matter search.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2025

Real-Time Readout System Design for the BULLKID-DM Experiment: Enhancing Dark Matter Search Capabilities

The BULLKID-DM experiment aims to detect WIMP-like potential Dark Matter particles with masses below 1 GeV/c^2. Sensing these particles is challenging, as it requires nuclear recoil detectors characterized by high exposure and an energy threshold in the order of 100 eV, thus exceeding the capabilities of conventional semiconductor detectors. BULLKID-DM intends to tackle this challenge by using cryogenic Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) with exceptional energy thresholds to sense a target with a total mass of 800 g across 16 wafers, divided into over 2000 individually instrumented silicon dice. The MKIDs on each wafer are coupled to a single transmission line and read using a frequency division multiplexing approach by the room-temperature data acquisition. In this contribution, we describe and assess the design of the room-temperature readout electronics system, including the selected hardware components and the FPGA firmware which contains the real-time signal processing stages for tone generation, frequency demultiplexing, and event triggering. We evaluate the system on the ZCU216 board, a commercial evaluation card built around a Radio-Frequency System-on-Chip (RFSoC) with integrated high-speed DACs and ADCs, and connected it to a custom-designed analog front-end for signal conditioning.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2024

Optimal Demodulation Domain for Microwave SQUID Multiplexers in Presence of Readout System Noise

The Microwave SQUID Multiplexer (μMUX) is the device of choice for the readout of a large number of Low-Temperature Detectors in a wide variety of experiments within the fields of astronomy and particle physics. While it offers large multiplexing factors, the system noise performance is highly dependent on the cold and warm-readout electronic systems used to read it out, as well as the demodulation domain and parameters chosen. In order to understand the impact of the readout systems in the overall detection system noise performance, first we extended the available μMUX simulation frameworks including additive and multiplicative noise sources in the probing tones (i.e. phase and amplitude noise), along with the capability of demodulating the scientific data, either in resonator's phase or scattering amplitude. Then, considering the additive noise as a dominant noise source, the optimum readout parameters to achieve minimum system noise were found for both open-loop and flux-ramp demodulation schemes in the aforementioned domains. Later, we evaluated the system noise sensitivity to multiplicative noise sources under the optimum readout parameters. Finally, as a case study, we evaluated the optimal demodulation domain and expected system noise level for a typical Software-Defined Radio (SDR) readout system. This work leads to an improved system performance prediction and noise engineering based on the available readout electronics and selected demodulation domain.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2024

RFSoC Gen3-Based Software-Defined Radio Characterization for the Readout System of Low-Temperature Bolometers

This work reports the performance evaluation of an SDR readout system based on the latest generation (Gen3) of the AMD's Radio Frequency System-on-Chip (RFSoC) processing platform, which integrates a full-stack processing system and a powerful FPGA with up to 32 high-speed and high-resolution 14-bit Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) and Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs). The proposed readout system uses a previously developed multi-band, double-conversion IQ RF-mixing board targeting a multiplexing factor of approximately 1,000 bolometers in a bandwidth between 4 and 8 GHz, in line with state-of-the-art microwave SQUID multiplexers ($μ$MUX). The characterization of the system was performed in two stages, under the conditions typically imposed by the multiplexer and the cold readout circuit. First, in transmission, showing that noise and spurious levels of the generated tones are close to the values imposed by the cold readout. Second, in RF loopback, presenting noise values better than -100 dBc/Hz totally in agreement with the state-of-the-art readout systems. It was demonstrated that the RFSoC Gen3 device is a suitable enabling technology for the next generation of superconducting detector readout systems, reducing system complexity, increasing system integration, and achieving these goals without performance degradation.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2024

ZynqMP-based board-management mezzanines for Serenity ATCA-blades

In the context of the CMS Phase-2 tracker back-end processing system, two mezzanines based on the Zynq Ultrascale+ Multi-Processor System-on-Chip (MPSoC) device have been developed to serve as centralized slow control and board management solution for the Serenity-family \textcolor{black}{Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA)} blades. This paper presents the developments of the MPSoC mezzanines to execute the Intelligent Platform Management Controller (IPMC) software in the real-time capable processors of the MPSoC. In coordination with the Shelf Manager, once full-power is enabled, a CentOS-based Linux distribution is executed in the application processors of the MPSoC, on which EMPButler and the Serenity Management Shell (SMASH) are running.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2024

Full-Scale Readout Electronics for the ECHo-100k Experiment

Recent advances in the development of cryogenic particle detectors such as magnetic microcalorimeters (MMCs) allow the fabrication of sensor arrays with an increasing number of pixels. Since these detectors must be operated at the lowest temperatures, the readout of large detector arrays is still quite challenging. This is especially true for the ECHo experiment, which presently aims to simultaneously run 6,000 two-pixel detectors to investigate the electron neutrino mass. For this reason, we developed a readout system based on a microwave SQUID multiplexer ($μ$MUX) that is operated by a custom software-defined radio (SDR) at room-temperature. The SDR readout electronics consist of three distinct hardware units: a data processing board with a Xilinx ZynqUS+ MPSoC; a converter board that features DACs, ADCs, and a coherent clock distribution network; and a radio frequency front-end board to translate the signals between the baseband and the microwave domains. Here, we describe the characteristics of the full-scale SDR system. First, the generated frequency comb for driving the $μ$MUX was evaluated. Subsequently, by operating the SDR in direct loopback, the crosstalk of the individual channels after frequency demultiplexing was investigated. Finally, the system was used with a 16-channel $μ$MUX to evaluate the linearity of the SDR, and the noise contributed to the overall readout setup.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2023

Lessons learned while developing the Serenity-S1 ATCA card

The Serenity-S1 is a Xilinx Virtex Ultrascale+ based Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) processing blade that has been optimised for production. It incorporates many developments from the Serenity-A and Serenity-Z prototype cards and, where possible, adopts solutions being used across CERN. It also uses many new parts because commonly used parts have disappeared from the market during the semiconductor crisis, with only some returning. Improvements to simplify manufacture, the performance of new components, some of the more difficult aspects of procurement, the performance of production-grade Samtec 25\,Gb/s optical firefly parts, and issues with the rack cooling infrastructure are discussed.

physics.ins-det↗