Design and prototyping of the front end readout system for the CDF silicon vertex detector

A silicon microstrip vertex detector is under construction for the collider detector at Fermilab (CDF). The vertex detector, which contains close to 4000 individual strips, will be read out with the full-custom VLSI circuit, the SVX chip, developed for this application. The integration of this circuit into a full front-end readout system is described. Problems of noise, packaging, signal and power distribution, control and readout, testing, and quality control are discussed. Results are presented on the operation of a prototype system including silicon strips.>