Integration and test of the ALICE SPD readout chain

The silicon pixel detector (SPD) is the innermost element of the ALICE inner tracking system (ITS). The on-detector electronic system consists of several ASICs in a commercial 0.25µm CMOS process (radiation-hardened by design), a low-mass multi layer Kapton cable for power and signal distribution (pixel bus), and a multi-chip module that includes a custom designed, very compact optical transceiver. The control and readout data transmission is done via optical fibres. Prototypes of the full read-out chain have been produced and tested. Integration issues and test results are presented and discussed. I. SYSTEM OVERVIEW The SPD is organised as 2 barrel layers at radii of 3.9cm and 7.6cm from the beam axis, respectively. The basic unit o