Commercial-Off-the-Shelf DC-DC converters for high energy physics detectors for the sLHC upgrade

A new generation of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) buck-type converters built using advanced short channel "high voltage" CMOS processes have the potential to operate near the interaction region of the proposed Super Large Hadron Collider (sLHC) upgraded accelerator. The benefit would be a simpler DC power distribution system and an increase of the overall power efficiency by allowing higher voltage power delivery to the front-end electronics, thus limiting the Ohmic losses. The devices must operate in a high magnetic field and be able to withstand both high doses of ionizing radiation and large neutron fluence. These converters are to be mounted on the same readout boards as the sensitive front-end electronics or in close proximity without introducing any additional noise due to the high switching frequencies. Radiation hardness and noise test results will be reported.