CDF will conduct a status review of the Run II VME TDC sub-project. There
are a number of technical issues WRT this sub-project for which the CDF
Upgrade Project management seeks advice.

The review will take place at Fermilab 9 AM - Noon on Thursday Sept 14,
2000. The Review will be held in the Snakepit in Wilson Hall (2nd floor).
Following the review, the committee will be asked to prepare a short written
document summarizing its findings and recommendations.

Committee:

Henry Frisch            Chairman
Bill Foster
Tony Liss
Micheal Schmidt
Aseet Mukherjee
Rick Van Berg
Harold Sanders
Terri Shaw


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Charge to TDC Review Committee

CDF employees a custom VME TDC to readout the Central Outer Tracker and Muon
chambers for Run II. A total of 540 TDC's including spares are being built.
(405 LVDS for COT, and 135 ECL input for Muon systems) These TDC's were
designed by University of Michigan. The PC boards are manufactured and
partially assembled in industry. The final assembly  and testing is done at
Michigan.  Maintenance of the system is shared between FNAL (PREP) and
Michigan.

Serious manufacturing problems have delayed completion of these modules.
Defects in the vias in one batch of PC boards has substantially complicated
the testing of some TDC modules and required a large investment in checkout
labor at Michigan. A number of tested TDC modules that were installed at
Fermilab have failed. Several failure modes have been identified. Failure of
previously good vias has been identified as a systemic problem for boards
manufactured with small vias. This could negatively impact the long term
reliability of these modules during the course of the experiment.

A proposal will be presented to build additional replacement TDC modules to
insure that CDF has a reliable compliment of TDC's for Run II. Schedule
information indicating when TDC's will be available for installation at CDF
will be provided. The plan will include cost estimates and a labor plan.

The purpose of this review is to evaluate the current state of the TDC
project from a technical standpoint. The committee should make
recommendations on the proposal to build additional TDCs and on the
associated cost and schedule estimates. The committee should evaluate the
experience with board checkout to date, the nature and frequency of the
observed TDC failures or problems, and the expected long term reliability of
the TDC modules. The committee should recommend an overall course of action
to the head of the CDF FE/Trig subsystem and to the CDF upgrade project
managers that they believe will lead to a full compliment of reliable TDC's
installed at CDF at the earliest date.