Instrumentation experiment

Since its creation, the IIHE has always been involved in the R&D programs of the major experiments in high energy physics (Gargamel, UA1, Delphi at LEP, CMS at LHC, Amanda, ICECube, Chorus, Opera, H1, etc.). Since 2007, the IIHE focuses its R&D activities on digital electronics, trigger and data acquisition systems for the upgrades of the CMS experiment and future experiments like ARA and the future linear collider.

In the framework of the CMS upgrades, the IIHE in collaboration with the University of Antwerpen is investigating the new micro-TCA standard, introduced by the telecommunication industry, to replace the VME electronics. With its high data throughput (several Gbps), high reliability and high availability, the micro-TCA standard combined with the most powerful FPGAs for the data processing should allow the future CMS DAQ system to cope with the LHC luminosity beyond the nominal value of 10E34 cm-2 s-1.