The ATLAS experiment is preparing for data taking at 14 TeV collision energy. A rich discovery physics program is being prepared in addition to the detailed study of Standard Model processes which will be produced in abundance. The ATLAS multi-level trigger system is designed to accept one event in 2 • 10B to enable the selection of rare and unusual physics events. The ATLAS calorimeter system is a precise instrument, which includes liquid Argon electromagnetic and hadronic components as well as a scintillator-tile hadronic calorimeter. All these components are used in the various levels of the trigger system. A wide physics coverage is ensured by inclusively selecting events with candidate electrons, photons, taus, jets or those with large missing transverse energy. The commissioning of the trigger system is being performed with cosmic ray events and by replaying simulated Monte Carlo events through the trigger and data acquisition system.

The ATLAS Level-1 Calorimeter Trigger uses reduced-granularity information from all the ATLAS calorimeters to search for high transverse-energy electrons, photons, τ leptons and jets, as well as high missing and total transverse energy. The calorimeter trigger electronics has a fixed latency of about 1 µs, using programmable custom-built digital electronics. This paper describes the Calorimeter Trigger hardware, as installed in the ATLAS electronics cavern.

Abstract--The architecture of the ATLAS Level-1 Calorimeter Trigger system (L1Calo) is presented. Common approaches have been adopted for data distribution, result merging, readout, and slow control across the three different subsystems. A significant amount of common hardware is utilized, yielding substantial savings in cost, spares, and development effort. A custom, high-density backplane has been developed with data paths suitable for both the em/τ τ τ τ cluster processor (CP) and jet/energy-summation processor (JEP) subsystems. Common modules also provide interfaces to VME, CANbus and the LHC Timing, Trigger and Control system (TTC). A common data merger module (CMM) uses FPGAs with multiple configurations for summing electron/photon and tau/hadron cluster multiplicities, jet multiplicities, or total and missing transverse energy. The CMM performs both crate-and system-level merging. A common, FPGA-based readout driver (ROD) is used by all of the subsystems to send input, intermediate and output data to the data acquisition system (DAQ), and region-of-interest (RoI) data to the level-2 triggers. Extensive use of FPGAs throughout the system makes the trigger flexible and upgradeable, and several architectural choices have been made to reduce the number of inter-crate links and make the hardware more robust.

At the full LHC design luminosity of 10 34 cm À2 s À1 ; there will be approximately 10 9 proton-proton interactions per second. The ATLAS level-1 trigger is required to have an acceptance factor of B10 À3 : The calorimeter trigger covers the region jZjp5:0; and f ¼ 0 to 2p: The distribution of transverse energy over the trigger phase space is analysed to identify candidates for electrons/photons, isolated hadrons, QCD jets and non-interacting particles. The Cluster Processor of the level-1 calorimeter trigger is designed to identify transverse energy clusters associated with the first two of these. The algorithms based on the trigger tower energies which have been designed to identify such clusters, are described here. The algorithms are evaluated using an FPGA. The reasons for the choice of the actual FPGA being used are given. The performance of the FPGA has been fully simulated, and the expected latency has been shown to be within the limits of the time allocated to the cluster trigger. These results, together with the results of measurements made with real data into a fully configured FPGA, are presented and discussed. r

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