Level-3 calorimeter resolution available for the Level-1 and Level-2 CDF triggers

As the Tevatron luminosity increases more sophisticated selections are required to be efficient in selecting rare events from a very huge background. To cope with this problem, CDF has pushed the Level-3 calorimeter algorithm resolutions up to Level-2 and, when possible, at Level-1, increasing efficiency and, at the same time, keeping under control the rates. This strategy increases the purity of the Level-2 and Level-1 samples, produces free-bandwidth that allows to reduce the thresholds. The global effect is an increase of the signal efficiency of important Tevatron Standard Model Higgs search channels (H → WW, ZH, WH). The L2 upgrade improves the cluster finding algorithm, the resolution of the Missing Transverse Energy (MET) and the SUM Transverse Energy (SUMET) calculations. The same Level-2 MET and SUMET improved resolution has been made available to the Level-1 system, exploiting the same hardware used for the Level-2 upgrade. The upgrade is based on the Pulsar board, a general purpose VME board developed at CDF and already used for upgrading both the Level-2 tracking and the Level-2 global decision crate. The Level-2 upgrade has been designed, built, tested and commissioned in six months. It was accepted as the default system for CDF in August 2007. The same Level-2 hardware can be used in such a way to provide the Level-1 calorimeter system of the same MET, SUMET resolution provided to Level-2. While in the upgraded Level-2 system the algorithms are executed in a commercial CPU within the typical Level-2 processing timing of 20 μs, in the upgraded Level-1 system, MET and SUMET are calculated by powerful FPGAs within 5 μs. The Level-1 upgrade is currently ongoing and in commissioning phase.We describe the CDF Level-2 and the new Level-1 calorimeter upgrades, the architecture and the trigger performances, with particular emphasis on a new calorimeter MET_JET-based trigger performances used for CDF Higgs search.