A Software Suite for Testing the Performance of the Optical Trigger Motherboard Electronics System for the CMS Experiment at the LHC

Abstract

The Optical Trigger Mother Board (OTMB) and mezzanine card is part of the upgrade of the muon Level-1 trigger system of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). 72 of the new boards are to be installed and commissioned in 2014 to ensure high efficiency of data collection following the upgrade of the LHC beam energy and intensity. The comprehensive testing of electronics is crucial to operation and efficiency of the CMS muon system, as electronics can become inaccessible for years at a time in the high radiation environment of the detector cavern. A complete test-stand has been designed and built at Texas A&M to exhaustively test new electronics components and long term stability in an environment emulating real operating conditions. As part of the test-stand a special software suite has been developed to operate the test-stand, evaluate new boards, and preserve certification data. The software system was designed with the consideration that it will become a part of the standard testing procedure used in normal operations.