The ATLAS pixel stave emulator for serial powering

A serial powering scheme is being developed for the upgrade of the ATLAS pixel detector in view of sLHC. It offers in fact significant advantages over the presently used parallel powering scheme, namely reduced material budget in active area and power losses on cables, smaller number of power supplies, and no need for external, distant regulation of voltages. The development of this powering scheme requires not only the design of custom-developed voltage regulators, the basic elements of serial powering, but also the early study of system aspects connected to it, for instance the safety of the powering chain and AC-coupled data transmission. To this aim a test system emulating an ATLAS pixel stave is being developed. It will provide a realistic environment to test both concepts and sub-components. Due to its flexibility, it will offer the possibility to study not only serial powering concepts, but more generally system aspects related to the ATLAS pixel detector. In particular alternative powering schemes, data coding schemes, physical layer data transmission, and Detector Control System concepts will also be evaluated with this test system. The description and development of the ATLAS pixel stave emulator are presented and first results are discussed