Fabian Alexander Förster

The High-Voltage Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor for the Mu3e Experiment

Mu3e is a novel experiment searching for charged lepton flavor violation in the rare decay μ → eee. In order to reduce background by up to 16 orders of magnitude, decay vertex position, decay time and particle momenta have to be measured precisely. A pixel tracker based on 50 μm thin high voltage monolithic active pixel sensors (HV-MAPS) in a magnetic field will deliver precise vertex and momentum information. Test beam results like an excellent efficiency of >99.5% and a time resolution of better than 16.6 ns obtained with the MuPix HV-MAPS chip developed for the Mu3e pixel tracker are presented.

3D silicon pixel detectors for the High-Luminosity LHC

3D silicon pixel detectors have been investigated as radiation-hard candidates for the innermost layers of the HL-LHC upgrade of the ATLAS pixel detector. 3D detectors are already in use today in the ATLAS IBL and AFP experiments. These are based on 50 × 250 μm2 large pixels connected to the FE-I4 readout chip. Detectors of this generation were irradiated to HL-LHC fluences and demonstrated excellent radiation hardness with operational voltages as low as 180 V and power dissipation of 12–15 mW/cm2 at a fluence of about 1016 neq/cm2, measured at -25°C. Moreover, to cope with the higher occupancies expected at the HL-LHC, a first run of a new generation of 3D detectors designed for the HL-LHC was produced at CNM with small pixel sizes of 50 × 50 and 25 × 100 μm2, matched to the FE-I4 chip. They demonstrated a good performance in the laboratory and in beam tests with hit efficiencies of about 97% at already 1–2 V before irradiation.

3D sensors for the HL-LHC

In order to increase its discovery potential, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) accelerator will be upgraded in the next decade. The high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) period demands new sensor technologies to cope with increasing radiation fluences and particle rates. The ATLAS experiment will replace the entire inner tracking detector with a completely new silicon-only system. 3D pixel sensors are promising candidates for the innermost layers of the Pixel detector due to their excellent radiation hardness at low operation voltages and low power dissipation at moderate temperatures. Recent developments of 3D sensors for the HL-LHC are presented.

Multiple Coulomb scattering in thin silicon

We present a measurement of multiple Coulomb scattering of 1 to 6 GeV/c electrons in thin (50–140 μm) silicon targets. The data were obtained with the EUDET telescope Aconite at DESY and are compared to parametrisations as used in the Geant4 software package. We find good agreement between data and simulation in the scattering distribution width but large deviations in the shape of the distribution. In order to achieve a better description of the shape, a new scattering model based on a Students t distribution is developed and compared to the data.

Studies of irradiated AMS H35 CMOS detectors for the ATLAS tracker upgrade

Silicon detectors based on the HV-CMOS technology are being investigated as possible candidate for the outer layers of the ATLAS pixel detector for the High Luminosity LHC. In this framework the H35Demo ASIC has been produced in the 350 nm AMS technology (H35). The H35Demo chip has a large area (18.49 × 24.40 mm2) and includes four different pixel matrices and three test structures. In this paper the radiation hardness properties, in particular the evolution of the depletion region with fluence is studied using edge-TCT on test structures. Measurements on the test structures from chips with different substrate resistivity are shown for non irradiated and irradiated devices up to a cumulative fluence of 2 ⋅ 1015 1 MeV neq / cm2.

Module production of the one-arm AFP 3D pixel tracker

The ATLAS Forward Proton (AFP) detector is designed to identify events in which one or two protons emerge intact from the LHC collisions. AFP will consist of a tracking detector, to measure the momentum of the protons, and a time of flight system to reduce the background from multiple proton-proton interactions. Following an extensive qualification period, 3D silicon pixel sensors were selected for the AFP tracker. The sensors were produced at CNM (Barcelona) during 2014. The tracker module assembly and quality control was performed at IFAE during 2015. The assembly of the first AFP arm and the following installation in the LHC tunnel took place in February 2016. This paper reviews the fabrication process of the AFP tracker focusing on the pixel modules.

Gain and time resolution of 45 μm thin Low Gain Avalanche Detectors before and after irradiation up to a fluence of 1015 neq/cm2

Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGADs) are silicon sensors with a built-in charge multiplication layer providing a gain of typically 10 to 50. Due to the combination of high signal-to-noise ratio and short rise time, thin LGADs provide good time resolutions. LGADs with an active thickness of about 45 μm were produced at CNM Barcelona. Their gains and time resolutions were studied in beam tests for two different multiplication layer implantation doses, as well as before and after irradiation with neutrons up to 1015 neq/cm2. The gain showed the expected decrease at a fixed voltage for a lower initial implantation dose, as well as for a higher fluence due to effective acceptor removal in the multiplication layer. Time resolutions below 30 ps were obtained at the highest applied voltages for both implantation doses before irradiation. Also after an intermediate fluence of 3×1014 neq/cm2, similar values were measured since a higher applicable reverse bias voltage could recover most of the pre-irradiation gain. At 1015 neq/cm2, the time resolution at the maximum applicable voltage of 620 V during the beam test was measured to be 57 ps since the voltage stability was not good enough to compensate for the gain layer loss. The time resolutions were found to follow approximately a universal function of gain for all implantation doses and fluences.

Characterisation of novel prototypes of monolithic HV-CMOS pixel detectors for high energy physics experiments

An upgrade of the ATLAS experiment for the High Luminosity phase of LHC is planned for 2024 and foresees the replacement of the present Inner Detector (ID) with a new Inner Tracker (ITk) completely made of silicon devices. Depleted active pixel sensors built with the High Voltage CMOS (HV-CMOS) technology are investigated as an option to cover large areas in the outermost layers of the pixel detector and are especially interesting for the development of monolithic devices which will reduce the production costs and the material budget with respect to the present hybrid assemblies. For this purpose the H35DEMO, a large area HV-CMOS demonstrator chip, was designed by KIT, IFAE and University of Liverpool, and produced in AMS 350 nm CMOS technology. It consists of four pixel matrices and additional test structures. Two of the matrices include amplifiers and discriminator stages and are thus designed to be operated as monolithic detectors. In these devices the signal is mainly produced by charge drift in a small depleted volume obtained by applying a bias voltage of the order of 100V. Moreover, to enhance the radiation hardness of the chip, this technology allows to enclose the electronics in the same deep N-WELLs which are also used as collecting electrodes. In this contribution the characterisation of H35DEMO chips and results of the very first beam test measurements of the monolithic CMOS matrices with high energetic pions at CERN SPS will be presented.