FERMI - A DIGITAL FRONT-END AND READOUT MICROSYSTEM FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION CALORIMETRY

We present a digital solution for the front-end electronics of high re solution calorimeters at future colliders. It is based on analogue sig nal compression, high speed A/D converters, a fully programmable pipel ine and a digital signal processing (DSP) chain with local intelligenc e and system supervision. This digital solution is aimed at providing maximal front-end processing power by performing waveform analysis usi ng DSP methods. For the system integration of the multichannel device a multi-chip, silicon-on-silicon multi-chip module (MCM) has been adop ted. This solution allows a high level of integration of complex analo gue and digital functions, with excellent flexibility in mixing techno logies for the different functional blocks. This type of multichip int egration provides a high degree of reliability and programmability at both the function and the system level, with the additional possibilit y of customising the microsystem to detector-specific requirements. Fo r enhanced reliability in high radiation environments, fault tolerance strategies, i.e. redundancy, reconfigurability, majority voting and c oding for error detection and correction, are integrated into the desi gn.