Speaker
Description
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is undergoing a major upgrade to increase its luminosity, initiating the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). The Phase-II upgrade of the ATLAS detector involves a complete upgrade of the Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) readout electronics to withstand higher radiation levels, increased trigger rates, and elevated pile-up conditions. This upgrade includes improvements to the Low Voltage Power Supply (LVPS) system, consisting of 256 finger-LVPS (fLVPS) boxes, each housing eight transformer-coupled buck converter boards. These boards provide regulated low-voltage power of approximately 10 V at load currents of 5-7 A to the front-end electronics, operating with typical power efficiencies in the range of 60-95%. The University of the Witwatersrand is responsible for the design, production, and quality assurance of half of the required fLVPS boards. This research focuses on the development and implementation of a burn-in test station designed to ensure the reliability and long-term operational stability of the fLVPS boards under HL-LHC conditions. The burn-in process operates over periods of approximately 8 hours at controlled thermal conditions, with target temperatures around 60◦C, while continuously monitoring key parameters including temperature (T2, T3), output voltage, output current, and efficiency. The main aim of this research is to quantify the thermal stability and electrical performance of the fLVPS boards during production burn-in testing, and to use these results to improve the quality assurance process. This includes evaluating voltage regulation, current stability, and efficiency variations as functions of temperature, as well as identifying potential deviations across production batches.
| Apply for student award at which level: | MSc |
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| Consent on use of personal information: Abstract Submission | Yes, I ACCEPT |