Firmware Design for Particle Timing Measurements in the CMS ETL

The MTD (MIP Timing Detector) is a new cutting-edge timing detector with 30 ps resolution, designed to measure particle timing with sophisticated precision that will be used to disentangle 200 nearly-simultaneous collisions in the CMS Phase-2. CMS is developing completely new back-end electronics to handle higher bandwidth interfaces to the front-end electronics within CMS and to process the resulting increased data volume of the HL-LHC era. To place the scale of the upgrade in perspective it is useful to consider the tracker readout, which will require an increase in bandwidth from 15 Tbit/s to 184 Tbit/s. This report summarizes my understanding of the MTD project that I joined its Data Acquisition Team during my Summer Student Program of 2023. Concluded with my contribution in developing ETL (Endcap Timing Layer) firmware readout logic.