Optical readout and control systems for the CMS tracker

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Experiment will be installed at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2007. The readout system for the CMS Tracker consists of 10000000 individual detector channels that are time-multiplexed onto 40000 unidirectional analogue (40 MSample/s) optical links for transmission between the detector and the 65 m distant counting room. The corresponding control system consists of 2500 bi-directional digital (40 Mb/s) optical links based as far as possible upon the same components. The on-detector elements (lasers and photodiodes) of both readout and control links will be distributed throughout the detector volume in close proximity to the silicon detector elements. For this reason, strict requirements are placed on minimal package size, mass, power dissipation, immunity to magnetic field, and radiation hardness. It has been possible to meet the requirements with the extensive use of commercially available components with a minimum of customization. The project has now entered its volume production phase after successful completion of technical feasibility studies. Components have been identified that meet both the stringent analogue performance targets and are sufficiently radiation-hard for use in the CMS Tracker, where lifetime radiation exposure is expected to reach 3.4×10¹⁴/cm² fluence and 150 kGy dose. Analogue and digital system performance, as well as the component radiation hardness and quality assurance procedures, are reviewed in this paper.