R and D studies of the ATLAS LAr calorimeter readout electronics for super-LHC

The ATLAS Liquid Argon (LAr) calorimeters are high precision, high sensitivity and high granularity detectors. A total of 182,468 signals are digitized and processed real-time on detector, to provide energy and time deposited in each detector element at every occurrence of the L1-trigger. The current readout electronics will need to be upgraded to sustain the higher radiation levels expected with the increase of a factor 10 in luminosity at the LHC in the years ∼2017. A completely innovative readout scheme is being developed. The front-end readout will send out data continuously at each bunch crossing through high speed radiation resistant optical links, the data will be processed real-time with the possibility of implementing trigger algorithms. This article is an overview of the R and D activities and architectural studies the ATLAS LAr Calorimeter Group is developing: front-end analog and mixed-signal ASIC design, radiation resistance optical-links in SOS, high-speed back-end processing units based on FPGA architectures and power supply distribution schemes.