The ATLAS Beam Conditions Monitor

Beam conditions and the potential detector damage resulting from their anomalies have pushed the LHC experiments to build their own beam monitoring devices. The ATLAS Beam Conditions Monitor (BCM) consists of two stations (forward and backward) of detectors each with four modules. The sensors are required to tolerate doses up to 500 kGy and in excess of 10¹⁵ charged particles per cm² over the lifetime of the experiment. Each module includes two diamond sensors read out in parallel. The stations are located symmetrically around the interaction point, positioning the diamond sensors at z = ±184 cm and r = 55 mm (a pseudo- rapidity of about 4.2). Equipped with fast electronics (2 ns rise time) these stations measure time-of-flight and pulse height to distinguish events resulting from lost beam particles from those normally occurring in proton-proton interactions. The BCM also provides a measurement of bunch-by-bunch luminosities in ATLAS by counting in-time and out-of-time collisions. Eleven detector modules have been fully assembled and tested. Tests performed range from characterisation of diamond sensors to full module tests with electron sources and in proton testbeams. Testbeam results from the CERN SPS show a module median-signal to noise of 11:1 for minimum ionising particles incident at a 45-degree angle. The best eight modules were installed on the ATLAS pixel support frame that was inserted into ATLAS in the summer of 2007. This paper describes the full BCM detector system along with simulation studies being used to develop the logic in the back-end FPGA coincidence hardware.