Panja-Riina Luukka

The CMS detector at the CERN LHC features a silicon pixel detector as its innermost subdetector. The original CMS pixel detector has been replaced with an upgraded pixel system (CMS Phase-1 pixel detector) in the extended year-end technical stop of the LHC in 2016/2017. The upgraded CMS pixel detector is designed to cope with the higher instantaneous luminosities that have been achieved by the LHC after the upgrades to the accelerator during the first long shutdown in 2013–2014. Compared to the original pixel detector, the upgraded detector has a better tracking performance and lower mass with four barrel layers and three endcap disks on each side to provide hit coverage up to an absolute value of pseudorapidity of 2.5. This paper describes the design and construction of the CMS Phase-1 pixel detector as well as its performance from commissioning to early operation in collision data-taking.

We processed pin-diodes on Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si), standard Float Zone silicon (Fz-Si) and oxygenated Fz-Si. The diodes were irradiated with 10, 20, and 30MeV protons. Depletion voltages and leakage currents were measured as a function of the irradiation dose. Additionally, the samples were characterized by TCT and DLTS methods. The high-resistivity Cz-Si was found to be more radiation hard than the other studied materials.

For the planned luminosity upgrade of the CERN LHC to the sLHC new radiation hard technologies for the tracking detectors are investigated. Corresponding to the luminosity increase, the radiation dose will be approximately a factor of ten higher than for the detectors currently installed in the LHC experiments. One option for radiation tolerant detectors are 3D silicon detectors with columnar electrodes penetrating into the silicon bulk. This article reports results of beam test measurements performed with 3D-DDTC (Double-Sided, Double Type Column) silicon strip detectors, where the columns do not pass through the detector completely. The devices were produced by IMB-CNM (Barcelona, Spain) and by FBK-irst (Trento, Italy). Important properties like space-resolved charge collection and efficiency are investigated.

The upgrade of the LHC to the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) is expected to increase the LHC design luminosity by an order of magnitude. This will require silicon tracking detectors with a significantly higher radiation hardness. The CMS Tracker Collaboration has conducted an irradiation and measurement campaign to identify suitable silicon sensor materials and strip designs for the future outer tracker at the CMS experiment. Based on these results, the collaboration has chosen to use n-in-p type silicon sensors and focus further investigations on the optimization of that sensor type. This paper describes the main measurement results and conclusions that motivated this decision.

We report a fabrication process of pixel detectors made of bulk cadmium telluride (CdTe) crystals. Prior to processing, the quality and defect density in CdTe material was characterized by infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The semiconductor detector and Flip-Chip (FC) interconnection processing was carried out in the clean room premises of Micronova Nanofabrication Centre in Espoo, Finland. The chip scale processes consist of the aluminum oxide (Al2O3) low temperature thermal Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), titanium tungsten (TiW) metal sputtering depositions and an electroless Nickel growth. CdTe crystals with the size of 10×10×0.5 mm3 were patterned with several photo-lithography techniques. In this study, gold (Au) was chosen as the material for the wettable Under Bump Metalization (UBM) pads. Indium (In) based solder bumps were grown on PSI46dig read out chips (ROC) having 4160 pixels within an area of 1 cm2. CdTe sensor and ROC were hybridized using a low temperature flip-chip (FC) interconnection technique. The In-Au cold weld bonding connections were successfully connecting both elements. After the processing the detector packages were wire bonded into associated read out electronics. The pixel detectors were tested at the premises of Finnish Radiation Safety Authority (STUK). During the measurement campaign, the modules were tested by exposure to a 137Cs source of 1.5 TBq for 8 minutes. We detected at the room temperature a photopeak at 662 keV with about 2 % energy resolution.

A beam telescope based on the CMS Tracker data acquisition prototype cards has been developed in order to test sensor candidates for S-LHC tracking systems. The telescope consists of up to eight reference silicon microstrip modules and slots for a couple of test modules. Beam tracks, as measured by the reference modules, provide a means of determining the position resolution and efficiency of the test modules. The impact point precision of reference tracks at the location of the test modules is about 4μm. This note presents a detailed description of the silicon beam telescope (SiBT) along with some results from its initial operation in summer 2007 in the CERN H2 beamline.

As a result of the foreseen increase in the luminosity of the Large Hadron Collider, the discrimination between the collision products and possible magnet quench-provoking beam losses of the primary proton beams is becoming more critical for safe accelerator operation. We report the results of ongoing research efforts targeting the upgrading of the monitoring system by exploiting Beam Loss Monitor detectors based on semiconductors located as close as possible to the superconducting coils of the triplet magnets. In practice, this means that the detectors will have to be immersed in superfluid helium inside the cold mass and operate at 1.9 K. Additionally, the monitoring system is expected to survive 20 years of LHC operation, resulting in an estimated radiation fluence of 1×1016 proton/cm2, which corresponds to a dose of about 2 MGy. In this study, we monitored the signal degradation during the in situ irradiation when silicon and single-crystal diamond detectors were situated in the liquid/superfluid helium and the dependences of the collected charge on fluence and bias voltage were obtained. It is shown that diamond and silicon detectors can operate at 1.9 K after 1×1016 p/cm2 irradiation required for application as BLMs, while the rate of the signal degradation was larger in silicon detectors than in the diamond ones. For Si detectors this rate was controlled mainly by the operational mode, being larger at forward bias voltage.

Detectors manufactured on p-type silicon material are known to have significant advantages in very harsh radiation environment over n-type detectors, traditionally used in High Energy Physics experiments for particle tracking. In p-type (n+ segmentation on p substrate) position-sensitive strip detectors, however, the fixed oxide charge in the silicon dioxide is positive and, thus, causes electron accumulation at the Si/SiO2 interface. As a result, unless appropriate interstrip isolation is applied, the n-type strips are short-circuited. Widely adopted methods to terminate surface electron accumulation are segmented p-stop or p-spray field implantations. A different approach to overcome the near-surface electron accumulation at the interface of silicon dioxide and p-type silicon is to deposit a thin film field insulator with negative oxide charge. We have processed silicon strip detectors on p-type Magnetic Czochralski silicon (MCz-Si) substrates with aluminum oxide (Al2O3) thin film insulator, grown with Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) method. The electrical characterization by current–voltage and capacitance−voltage measurement shows reliable performance of the aluminum oxide. The final proof of concept was obtained at the test beam with 200 GeV/c muons. For the non-irradiated detector the charge collection efficiency (CCE) was nearly 100% with a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of about 40, whereas for the 2×1015 neq/cm2 proton irradiated detector the CCE was 35%, when the sensor was biased at 500 V. These results are comparable with the results from p-type detectors with the p-spray and p-stop interstrip isolation techniques. In addition, interestingly, when the aluminum oxide was irradiated with Co-60 gamma-rays, an accumulation of negative fixed oxide charge in the oxide was observed.

When processing boron-doped p-type high-resistivity Czochralski Silicon (Cz-Si), the Thermal Donor (TD) generation process can be utilized in order to produce p+/n−/n+ detectors. The last thermal process step, i.e. the sintering of aluminum, is intentionally carried out at the temperature where TDs are created. Due to the generated donors the p-type bulk will eventually be compensated to n-type bulk. With this method it is possible, with low costs and with a process of low thermal budget, to fabricate detectors with high oxygen concentration. Moreover, the full depletion voltage of detectors could be tailored between a wide range from 30 V up to almost 1000 V by changing heat treatment duration at 400–450 °C from 20 to 80 min. The Space Charge Sign Inversion (SCSI) in the TD generated devices has been verified by the Transient Current Technique (TCT). The results of 24 GeV/c proton irradiation to fluences up to 5×1014 p/cm2 show a very small increase of full depletion voltage.

The Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si) has intrinsically high oxygen concentration. Therefore Cz-Si is considered as a promising material for the tracking systems in future very high luminosity colliders. In this contribution a brief overview of the Czochralski crystal growth is given. The fabrication process issues of Cz-Si are discussed and the formation of thermal donors is especially emphasized. N+/p−/p+ and p+/n−/n+ detectors have been processed on magnetic Czochralski (MCz-Si) wafers. We show measurement data of AC-coupled strip detectors and single pad detectors as well as experimental results of intentional TD doping. Data of spatial homogeneity of electrical properties, full depletion voltage and leakage current, is shown and n and p-type devices are compared. Our results show that it is possible to manufacture high quality n+/p−/p+ and p+/n−/n+ particle detectors from high-resistivity Cz-Si.

We have processed pin-diodes and strip detectors on n- and p-type high-resistivity silicon wafers grown by magnetic Czochralski method. The Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si) wafers manufactured by Okmetic Oyj have nominal resistivity of 900 Ω cm and 1.9 kΩ cm for n- and p-type, respectively. The oxygen concentration in these substrates is slightly less than typically in wafers used for integrated circuit fabrication. This is optimal for semiconductor fabrication as well as for radiation hardness. The radiation hardness of devices has been investigated with several irradiation campaigns including low- and high-energy protons, neutrons, γ-rays, lithium ions and electrons. Cz-Si was found to be more radiation hard than standard Float Zone silicon (Fz-Si) or oxygenated Fz-Si. When irradiated with protons, the full depletion voltage in Cz-Si has not exceeded its initial value of 300 V even after the fluence of 5×1014 cm−2 1-MeV eq. n cm−2 that equals more than 30 years operation of strip detectors in LHC experiments.

The degradation of signal in silicon sensors is studied under conditions expected at the CERN High-Luminosity LHC. 200 μm thick n-type silicon sensors are irradiated with protons of different energies to fluences of up to 3 · 1015 neq/cm2. Pulsed red laser light with a wavelength of 672 nm is used to generate electron-hole pairs in the sensors. The induced signals are used to determine the charge collection efficiencies separately for electrons and holes drifting through the sensor. The effective trapping rates are extracted by comparing the results to simulation. The electric field is simulated using Synopsys device simulation assuming two effective defects. The generation and drift of charge carriers are simulated in an independent simulation based on PixelAV. The effective trapping rates are determined from the measured charge collection efficiencies and the simulated and measured time-resolved current pulses are compared. The effective trapping rates determined for both electrons and holes are about 50% smaller than those obtained using standard extrapolations of studies at low fluences and suggest an improved tracker performance over initial expectations.

We report on the fabrication of capacitively (AC) coupled n+-in-p pixel detectors on magnetic Czochralski silicon substrates. In our devices, we employ a layer of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) as dielectric and field insulator, instead of the commonly used silicon dioxide (SiO2). As shown in earlier research, Al2O3 thin films exhibit high negative oxide charge, and can thus serve as a substitute for p-stop/p-spray insulation implants between pixels. In addition, they provide far higher capacitance densities than SiO2 due to their high dielectric constant, permitting more efficient capacitive coupling of pixels. Furthermore, metallic titanium nitride (TiN) bias resistors are presented as an alternative to punch-through or poly-Si resistors. Devices obtained by the above mentioned process are characterized by capacitance–voltage and current–voltage measurements, and by 2 MeV proton microprobe. Results show the expected high negative charge of the Al2O3 dielectric, uniform charge collection efficiency over large areas of pixels, and acceptable leakage current densities.

During summer 2006 a fraction of the CMS silicon strip tracker was operated in a comprehensive slice test called the Magnet Test and Cosmic Challenge (MTCC). At the MTCC, cosmic rays detected in the muon chambers were used to trigger the readout of all CMS sub-detectors in the general data acquisition system and in the presence of the 4 T magnetic field produced by the CMS superconducting solenoid. This document describes the operation of the Tracker hardware and software prior, during and after data taking. The performance of the detector as resulting from the MTCC data analysis is also presented.

GaAs devices have relatively high atomic numbers (Z=31, 33) and thus extend the X-ray absorption edge beyond that of Si (Z=14) devices. In this study, radiation detectors were processed on GaAs substrates with 110 $\mu\textrm{m}$ - 130 $\mu\textrm{m}$ thick epitaxial absorption volume. Thick undoped and heavily doped p$^+$ epitaxial layers were grown using a custom-made horizontal Chloride Vapor Phase Epitaxy (CVPE) reactor, the growth rate of which was about 10 $\mu\textrm{m}$/h. The GaAs p$^+$/i/n$^+$ detectors were characterized by Capacitance Voltage ($CV$), Current Voltage ($IV$), Transient Current Technique (TCT) and Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) measurements. The full depletion voltage ($V_{\textrm{fd}}$) of the detectors with 110 $\mu\textrm{m}$ epi-layer thickness is in the range of 8 V - 15 V and the leakage current density is about 10 nA/cm$^2$. The signal transit time determined by TCT is about 5 ns when the bias voltage is well above the value that produces the peak saturation drift velocity of electrons in GaAs at a given thickness. Numerical simulations with an appropriate defect model agree with the experimental results.

In this report we cover two special applications of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) thin films to solve these challenges of the very small size pixel detectors. First, we propose to passivate the p-type pixel detector with ALD grown Al2O3 field insulator with a negative oxide charge instead of using the commonly adopted p-stop or p-spray technologies with SiO2, and second, to use plasma-enhanced ALD grown titanium nitride (TiN) bias resistors instead of the punch through biasing structures. Surface passivation properties of Al2O3 field insulator was studied by Photoconductive Decay (PCD) method and our results indicate that after appropriate annealing Al2O3 provides equally low effective surface recombination velocity as thermally oxidized Si/SiO2 interface. Furthermore, with properly designed annealing steps, the TiN thin film resistors can be tuned to have up to several MΩ resistances with a few µm of physical size required in ultra-fine pitch pixel detectors.

A new CMS tracker detector will be installed for operation at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). This detector comprises modules with two closely spaced parallel sensor plates and front-end ASICs capable of transmitting tracking information to the CMS Level-1 (L1) trigger at the 40 MHz beam crossing rate. The inclusion of tracking information in the L1 trigger decision will be essential for selecting events of interest efficiently at the HL-LHC. The CMS Binary Chip (CBC) has been designed to read out and correlate hits from pairs of tracker sensors, forming so-called track stubs. For the first time, a prototype irradiated module and a full-sized module, both equipped with the version 2 of the CBC, have been operated in test beam facilities. The efficiency of the stub finding logic of the modules for various angles of incidence has been studied. The ability of the modules to reject tracks with transverse momentum less than 2 GeV has been demonstrated. For modules built with irradiated sensors, no significant drop in the stub finding performance has been observed. Results from the beam tests are described in this paper.

The Phase-2 upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) allows an increase in the operational luminosity value by a factor of 5–7 that will result in delivering 3000 fb−1 or more integrated luminosity. Due to high luminosity, the number of interactions per bunch crossings (pileup) will increase up to a value of 140–200. To cope with high pileup rates, a precision minimum ionising particles (MIPs) timing detector (MTD) with a time resolution of ∼30–40 ps and hermetic coverage up to a pseudo-rapidity of |η|=3 is proposed by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment. An endcap part (1.6<|η|<3) of the MTD, called the endcap timing layer, will be based on low-gain avalanche detector (LGAD) technology. LGADs provide a good timing resolution due to a combination of a fast signal rise time and high signal-to-noise ratio. The performance of the ETL depends on optimising the crucial features of the sensors, namely; gain, signal homogeneity, fill factor, leakage current, uniformity of multiple-pad sensors and long term stability. The paper mainly focuses on the study of the fill factor of LGADs with varying temperature and irradiation at varying proton fluences as these sensors will be operated at low temperatures and are subjected to a high radiation environment. The 3.1 production of LGADs from Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (HPK) includes 2x2 sensors with different structures, in particular, different values of narrower inactive region widths between the pads, called the no-gain region. In this paper, the term interpad-gap is used instead of no-gain region in order to follow the conventional terminology. These sensors have been designed to study their fill factor, which is the ratio of the area within the active region (gain region) to the total sensor area. A comparative study on the dependence of breakdown voltage with the interpad-gap width for the sensors has been carried out. Using infrared light (as the electron–hole pair creation by IR laser mimics closely to the traversing of MIPs) from the Scanning-Transient Current Technique (Scanning-TCT) set-up shows that the fill factor does not vary significantly with a variation in temperature and irradiation at high proton fluences.

To cope with the challenging environment of the planned high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), scheduled to start operation in 2029, CMS will replace its entire tracking system. The requirements for the tracker are largely determined by the long operation time of 10 years with an instantaneous peak luminosity of up to 7.5 × 1034 cm−2 s−1 in the ultimate performance scenario. Depending on the radial distance from the interaction point, the silicon sensors will receive a particle fluence corresponding to a non-ionising energy loss of up to Φeq= 3.5 × 1016 cm−2. This paper focuses on planar pixel sensor design and qualification up to a fluence of Φeq = 1.4 × 1016 cm−2.For the development of appropriate planar pixel sensors an R&D program was initiated, which includes n+-p sensors on 150 mm (6”) wafers with an active thickness of 150 µm with pixel sizes of 100×25 µm2 and 50×50 µm2 manufactured by Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (HPK). Single chip modules with ROC4Sens and RD53A readout chips were made. Irradiation with protons and neutrons, as well was an extensive test beam campaign at DESY were carried out. This paper presents the investigation of various assemblies mainly with ROC4Sens readout chips. It demonstrates that multiple designs fulfil the requirements in terms of breakdown voltage, leakage current and efficiency. The single point resolution for 50×50 µm2 pixels is measured as 4.0 µm for non-irradiated samples, and 6.3 µm after irradiation to Φeq = 7.2 × 1015 cm−2.

Abstract The Large Hadron Collider at CERN will undergo an upgrade in order to increase its luminosity to 7.5 × 10 34 cm -2 s -1 . The increased luminosity during this High-Luminosity running phase, starting around 2029, means a higher rate of proton-proton interactions, hence a larger ionizing dose and particle fluence for the detectors. The current tracking system of the CMS experiment will be fully replaced in order to cope with the new operating conditions. Prototype planar pixel sensors for the CMS Inner Tracker with square 50 μm × 50 μm and rectangular 100 μm × 25 μm pixels read out by the RD53A chip were characterized in the lab and at the DESY-II testbeam facility in order to identify designs that meet the requirements of CMS during the High-Luminosity running phase. A spatial resolution of approximately 3.4 μm (2 μm) is obtained using the modules with 50 μm × 50 μm (100 μm × 25 μm) pixels at the optimal angle of incidence before irradiation. After irradiation to a 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence of Φ eq = 5.3 × 10 15 cm -2 , a resolution of 9.4 μm is achieved at a bias voltage of 800 V using a module with 50 μm × 50 μm pixel size. All modules retain a hit efficiency in excess of 99% after irradiation to fluences up to 2.1 × 10 16 cm -2 . Further studies of the electrical properties of the modules, especially crosstalk, are also presented in this paper.

We have processed pin-diodes on Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si), standard float zone silicon (Fz-Si), and diffusion oxygenated float zone silicon (DOF) and irradiated them with 10- and 20-MeV protons. Evolutions of depletion voltage and leakage current as a function of irradiation dose were measured. Space charge sign inversion (SCSI) was investigated by an annealing study and verified by transient current technique (TCT). Czochralski silicon was found to be significantly more radiation hard than the other materials.

Recombination lifetime in oxidized high-resistivity silicon has been characterized by the microwave photoconductivity decay (μPCD) technique. In this technique, a silicon wafer is illuminated by a laser pulse that generates electron hole pairs. The transient of the decaying carrier concentration is monitored by using a microwave signal. The recombination lifetime is a measure of the material quality, i.e., defect/impurity concentration which affects the quality of the resulting detectors and their electrical properties. The μPCD technique is a non-contact and non-invasive technique that can map recombination lifetime of the entire wafer before it is selected for device/detector processing. The recombination lifetime mapping on a wafer is realized by a 2D color imaging code representing the range of the lifetime in μs. In general, the recombination lifetime is the smallest around the wafer edges (about 1000–2000 μs), and highest in the center of the wafer (5000–10,000 μs). The recombination lifetime has been measured under different injection levels and surface charge conditions. The results show that the lifetime in investigated n-type materials is almost independent of the injection level if the passivating SiO2 film is corona charged.

High resistivity magnetic Czochralski Si detectors were irradiated with /sup 60/Co gamma rays, neutrons, and protons to various doses/fluences, along with control float zone Si detectors. 1) It has been found that for gamma radiation, magnetic Czochralski Si detectors behave similarly to the high-temperature, long-time (HTLT) oxygenated float zone Si detectors. There is no space charge sign inversion and there is a buildup of positive space charges. The rate for this buildup is much higher than that for the oxygenated Si detectors and is proportional to the oxygen concentration. 2) For neutron radiation, there is little difference between magnetic Czochralski and control float zone silicon detectors. Space charge sign inversion is observed for both materials. The introduction rate of deep acceptors (beta) for magnetic Czochralski Si detectors is slightly less than that for control float zone Si detectors, and 3) for proton radiation (10 and 20 MeV), although the space charge sign inversion is also observed for magnetic Czochralski Si detectors, the 1-MeV neutron-equivalent space charge sign inversion fluence is about three times higher than that of magnetic Czochralski Si detectors irradiated with neutrons. Also, the acceptor introduction rate beta is about half of that for oxygenated Si detectors. Thus, high resistivity magnetic Czochralski Si behaves in a similar manner to the HTLT oxygenated float zone Si detectors and is even more radiation resistant to damage caused by charged particles.

Strip detectors with an area of 16cm2 were processed on high resistivity n-type magnetic Czochralski silicon. In addition, detectors were processed on high resistivity Float Zone wafers with the same mask set for comparison. The detectors were irradiated to several different fluences up to the fluence of 3×10151MeVneq/cm2 with protons or with mixed protons and neutrons. The detectors were fully characterized with CV- and IV-measurements prior to and after the irradiation. The beam test was carried out at the CERN H2 beam line using a silicon beam telescope that determines the tracks of the incoming particles and hence provides a reference measurement for the detector characterization. The n-type MCz-Si strip detectors have an acceptable S/N at least up to the fluence of 1×1015neq/cm2 and thus, they are a feasible option for the strip detector layers in the SLHC tracking systems.

Abstract The CMS Inner Tracker, made of silicon pixel modules, will be entirely replaced prior to the start of the High Luminosity LHC period. One of the crucial components of the new Inner Tracker system is the readout chip, being developed by the RD53 Collaboration, and in particular its analogue front-end, which receives the signal from the sensor and digitizes it. Three different analogue front-ends (Synchronous, Linear, and Differential) were designed and implemented in the RD53A demonstrator chip. A dedicated evaluation program was carried out to select the most suitable design to build a radiation tolerant pixel detector able to sustain high particle rates with high efficiency and a small fraction of spurious pixel hits. The test results showed that all three analogue front-ends presented strong points, but also limitations. The Differential front-end demonstrated very low noise, but the threshold tuning became problematic after irradiation. Moreover, a saturation in the preamplifier feedback loop affected the return of the signal to baseline and thus increased the dead time. The Synchronous front-end showed very good timing performance, but also higher noise. For the Linear front-end all of the parameters were within specification, although this design had the largest time walk. This limitation was addressed and mitigated in an improved design. The analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the three front-ends in the context of the CMS Inner Tracker operation requirements led to the selection of the improved design Linear front-end for integration in the final CMS readout chip.

Abstract Positive space charge build-up was observed in proton—and neutron—irradiated high-resistivity magnetic Czochralski (MCZ) n-type Si detectors after gamma radiation. Space charge sign re-inversion (SCSRI) from negative to positive was achieved at the high dose of 454 Mrad in a low-fluence proton irradiated MCZ Si detector. No SCSRI has been observed yet for low-fluence neutron-irradiated MCZ Si detectors at the highest dose in this study (662 Mrad), but positive space charge is building up, and SCSRI is expected at higher doses. Up to the highest dose in this study, the double junction or double peak electric field distribution is still preserved even after SCSRI. No SCSRI was observed in control FZ Si detectors. Space charge sign inversion was also observed in high-resistivity as-processed MCZ p-type Si detectors after gamma radiation.

Pad and strip detectors processed on high resistivity n-type magnetic Czochralski silicon (MCz-Si) were irradiated to several different fluences with protons.The pad detectors were characterized with the Transient Current Technique (TCT) and the full-size strip detectors with a reference beam telescope and a 225 GeV muon beam.The TCT measurements indicate a double junction structure and space charge sign inversion in MCz-Si detectors after 6 × 10 14 1 MeV n eq /cm 2 fluence.In the beam test a S/N of 50 was measured for a non-irradiated MCz-Si sensor, and a S/N of 20 for the sensors irradiated to the fluences of 1 × 10 14 1 MeV n eq /cm 2 , and 5 × 10 14 1 MeV n eq /cm 2 .

Recent experiments on silicon detectors developed by the CERN-RD50 collaboration for very high luminosity colliders showed a significant enhancement of the collected charge Qc in Si detectors irradiated to the fluence of 1015–1016 neq/cm2 if the devices were operated at high bias voltage. The enhancement arises from carrier avalanche multiplication in high electric field of the junction. However, calculated and experimental results indicated that a maximum Qc enhancement is much lower than the signal gain in avalanche photodiodes. The study of the collected charge in Si n-on-p strip detectors described here is focused on the restriction of the internal gain in irradiated Si strip detectors. It is demonstrated that (1) the gain in the collected charge due to avalanche multiplication is strongly restricted by the negative feedback arisen from a space charge limited current (SCLC negative feedback), which is an inherent property of heavily irradiated Si detectors with high concentration of radiation-induced defects; (2) the dependence of the gain on fluence is nonmonotonous due to competition between enhanced carrier trapping at high fluence and avalanche multiplication, which correlates with recent experimental results; (3) SCLC negative feedback makes the internal gain practically insensitive to the design of the detector region with high electric field. The results of this study show that the avalanche multiplication effect can be efficient in improving the radiation performance of Si detectors developed for the sLHC in a limited fluence range, which luckily covers the range expected in the upgraded LHC experiments.

We report initial characterization of our novel sensor process solutions with AC-coupled n+/p−/p+ pixel detectors made on 150 mm diameter p-type Magnetic Czochralski silicon (MCz-Si) wafers. The pixels were segmented in a 52 × 80 dual column array and designed to be AC capacitive coupled. The resistive coupling between pixels, allowing quality assurance probing prior the flip chip bonding, was realized with thin film metal-nitride resistors fabricated by sputtering deposition. This approach allows us to omit punch-through resistor structures, which reduces the overall process complexity. Moreover, our previous studies have emphasized that applying ALD Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3) field insulator and passivation layer results in negative net oxide charge and thus additional p-spray or p-stop surface current termination structures are not necessary. Our focused application is a radiation-hard ALD AC-coupled pixel detector to be used in future particle physics experiments, such as the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), as well as photon counting applications. The pixel detectors were tested at Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP) Detector laboratory and Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI). We show measurement data of pixel detectors and other test structures. For the TiN resistors surrounding pixels, the resistance values were measured to be about 15kΩ. Data of electrical properties, full depletion voltage and leakage current are shown as well. Our Transient Current Technique (TCT) measurements indicated clear pixel segmentation with excellent homogeneity. For further study, AC-coupled sensors were hybridized to PSI46dig read out chips (ROC) by flip-chip interconnection technique and tested with a radioactive source.

We have processed pad detectors on high-resistivity p-type Cz-Si wafers. The resistivity of the boron-doped silicon is approximately 1.8 k/spl Omega/ cm after the crystal growth. The detector processing was carried out using the common procedure for standard n-type wafers, to produce p/sup +//p/p/sup -//n/sup +/ detector structures. During the last process step, i.e., sintering of aluminum electrode, the p-type bulk was turned to n-type through generation of thermal donors (TD). This way, high oxygen concentration p/sup +//n/sup -//n/sup +/ Cz-Si detectors were realized with low temperature process. The full depletion voltage of detectors could be tailored between wide range from 30 V up to close 1000 V by changing heat treatment at 400/spl deg/C-450/spl deg/C duration from 20 to 80 min. The space charge sign inversion (SCSI) in the TD generated devices (from p/sup +//p/sup -//n/sup +/ to p/sup +//n/sup -/(inverted)/n/sup +/) has been verified by transient current technique measurements. The detectors show very small increase of full depletion voltage after irradiations with 24 GeV/c protons up to 5*10/sup 14/ p/cm/sup 2/.

In March 2007 the assembly of the Silicon Strip Tracker was completed at the Tracker Integration Facility at CERN. Nearly 15% of the detector was instrumented using cables, fiber optics, power supplies, and electronics intended for the operation at the LHC. A local chiller was used to circulate the coolant for low temperature operation. In order to understand the efficiency and alignment of the strip tracker modules, a cosmic ray trigger was implemented. From March through July 4.5 million triggers were recorded. This period, referred to as the Sector Test, provided practical experience with the operation of the Tracker, especially safety, data acquisition, power, and cooling systems. This paper describes the performance of the strip system during the Sector Test, which consisted of five distinct periods defined by the coolant temperature. Significant emphasis is placed on comparisons between the data and results from Monte Carlo studies.

A heavily irradiated (3×1015 1 MeV neq/cm2) Current Injected Detector (CID) was tested with 225 GeV muon beam at CERN H2 beam line. In the CID concept the current is limited by the space charge. The injected carriers will be trapped by the deep levels and this induces a stable electric field through the entire bulk regardless of the irradiation fluence the detector has been exposed to. The steady-state density of the trapped charge is defined by the balance between the trapping and the emission rates of charge carriers (detrapping). Thus, the amount of charge injection needed for the electric field stabilization depends on the temperature. AC-coupled 16 cm2 detector was processed on high resistivity n-type magnetic Czochralski silicon, and it had 768 strips, 50 μm pitch, 10 μm strip width and 3.9 cm strip length. The beam test was carried out using a silicon beam telescope that is based on the CMS detector readout prototype components, APV25 readout chips, and eight strip sensors made by Hamamatsu having 60 μm pitch and intermediate strips. The tested CID detector was bonded to the APV25 readout, and it was operated at temperatures ranging from −40 to −53 °C. The CID detector irradiated at 3×1015 1 MeV neq/cm2 fluence shows about 40% relative Charge Collection Efficiency with respect to the non-irradiated reference plane sensors.

In this study the main characteristics of silicon Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGAD), the dependencies of the collected charge versus bias voltage and fluence, are calculated to fit experimental data. The calculations are based on two previously developed Ioffe Institute models of radiation degradation in Si detectors: 1) a model of two effective energy levels of radiation-induced defects, and 2) a mechanism of internal negative feedback responsible for the gain degradation in irradiated Si detectors originating from the avalanche multiplication at the detector junction. The combination of these models describes well the properties of irradiated p-i-n detectors in a wide range of fluences. For simulating the LGAD characteristics the models are adapted to its n+-pbi-p-p+ structure, where the built-in boron-doped layer pbi produces high electric field sufficient for carrier impact ionization. It is shown that the developed models give adequate quantitative description of the experimental results for the LGADs up to the fluence of 2×1015 n/cm2 including the detector pulse response; however, additional boron removal from the pbi layer is required to have the best correlation with the experimental data. Similar to the physical model developed for silicon strip detectors operated at high voltage, the results are interpreted in terms of the internal negative feedback mechanism. It is shown that in irradiated LGADs this feedback leads to the transfer of a significant fraction of the potential drop from the built-in layer toward the p+ contact. It initiates two negative effects, which both cause the gain degradation with irradiation: the lowering of the electric field in the n+-pbi region that reduces the multiplication probability, and the increase of the collection time and trapping-related charge losses.

A new pixel detector for the CMS experiment was built in order to cope with the instantaneous luminosities anticipated for the Phase~I Upgrade of the LHC. The new CMS pixel detector provides four-hit tracking with a reduced material budget as well as new cooling and powering schemes. A new front-end readout chip mitigates buffering and bandwidth limitations, and allows operation at low comparator thresholds. In this paper, comprehensive test beam studies are presented, which have been conducted to verify the design and to quantify the performance of the new detector assemblies in terms of tracking efficiency and spatial resolution. Under optimal conditions, the tracking efficiency is $99.95\pm0.05\,\%$, while the intrinsic spatial resolutions are $4.80\pm0.25\,\mu \mathrm{m}$ and $7.99\pm0.21\,\mu \mathrm{m}$ along the $100\,\mu \mathrm{m}$ and $150\,\mu \mathrm{m}$ pixel pitch, respectively. The findings are compared to a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the pixel detector and good agreement is found.

During the high-luminosity phase of the LHC (HL-LHC), planned to start in 2027, the accelerator is expected to deliver an instantaneous peak luminosity of up to 7.5×1034 cm−2 s−1. A total integrated luminosity of 0300 or even 0400 fb−1 is foreseen to be delivered to the general purpose detectors ATLAS and CMS over a decade, thereby increasing the discovery potential of the LHC experiments significantly. The CMS detector will undergo a major upgrade for the HL-LHC, with entirely new tracking detectors consisting of an Outer Tracker and Inner Tracker. However, the new tracking system will be exposed to a significantly higher radiation than the current tracker, requiring new radiation-hard sensors. CMS initiated an extensive irradiation and measurement campaign starting in 2009 to systematically compare the properties of different silicon materials and design choices for the Outer Tracker sensors. Several test structures and sensors were designed and implemented on 18 different combinations of wafer materials, thicknesses, and production technologies. The devices were electrically characterized before and after irradiation with neutrons, and with protons of different energies, with fluences corresponding to those expected at different radii of the CMS Outer Tracker after 0300 fb−1. The tests performed include studies with β sources, lasers, and beam scans. This paper compares the performance of different options for the HL-LHC silicon sensors with a focus on silicon bulk material and thickness.

In this report, the processing of thermal donor (TD) compensated detectors is described. Heat treatment of Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si) wafers between 400 and 600 °C leads to aggregation of interstitial oxygen atoms resulting in electrically active shallow levels in the silicon band gap. This process is known as TD formation. It depends on the temperature, the oxygen concentration in the silicon material and the presence of hydrogen in device manufacturing process. The oxygen concentration in silicon wafers grown by Magnetic Czochralski (MCz) method is sufficiently high in order that the concentration of TDs is comparable with the initial phosphorous or boron doping of high-resistivity Cz-Si. The TD formation has been studied by monitoring the detector full depletion voltage with respect to the heating time at 430 °C. The TD formation has been verified by Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) measurements. In addition, the annealing behavior of the irradiated samples at different temperatures is discussed. The TD formation in n+/p−/p+ pad detectors has been observed not to influence the leakage current of the devices. Thus, the full depletion voltage of the detectors processed on p-type MCz-Si wafers can be modified by this method.

There are two key approaches in our CERN RD 39 Collaboration efforts to obtain ultra-radiation-hard Si detectors: (1) use of the charge/current injection to manipulate the detector internal electric field in such a way that it can be depleted at a modest bias voltage at cryogenic temperature range (⩽150 K), and (2) freezing out of the trapping centers that affects the CCE at cryogenic temperatures lower than that of the liquid nitrogen (LN2) temperature. In our first approach, we have developed the advanced radiation hard detectors using charge or current injection, the current injected diodes (CID). In a CID, the electric field is controlled by injected current, which is limited by the space charge, yielding a nearly uniform electric field in the detector, independent of the radiation fluence. In our second approach, we have developed models of radiation-induced trapping levels and the physics of their freezing out at cryogenic temperatures.

Abstract Radiation hardness up to 1 × 10 16 cm - 2 is required in the future high-energy physics experiments. This is well beyond the radiation tolerance of even the most advanced semiconductor detectors fabricated by commonly adopted technologies. The Current Injected Detector (CID) is a device in which the current is limited by the space charge, which originates from injected carriers trapped by the deep levels. This induces a stable electric field through the entire detector bulk regardless of the irradiation fluence the detector has been exposed to. The steady state density of the trapped charge is defined by the balance between the trapping and emission rates of charge carriers (detrapping). Thus, the amount of charge injection needed for electric field stabilization depends on the temperature. The CID mode has a new specific feature which limits the maximum operational voltage. It is connected with the space charge density saturation and the sharp current rising at the threshold voltage V T . The value of V T is proportional to the irradiation fluence and it increases with respect to the irradiation fluence extending the range of the operation voltage.

Tellurium defects in CdTe and CdZnTe detectors are known to degrade the detector performance by trapping passing charges. This causes losses in charge collection and ultimately degrades the energy resolution. The amount and size of the defects has previously been studied for small areas of these materials, and small defects (< 5 μ m) have been identified as the main cause for signal degradation. However, previous studies concentrated on the evaluation of a view regions of interest. In this study we present a system capable of scanning larger volumes of CdTe and CdZnTe and associate the locations of the found defects with the charge collection of detectors. Further, we show that the signal degradation is not uniform over the whole detector, but linked to local densities of defects. This results in variations of charge collection even within single detectors.

The suitability of two low-temperature dielectric passivation layer processes for the fabrication of Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) X-ray detectors has been investigated. The CdTe crystals with a size of (10 × 10 × 1) mm3 were coated with sputtered aluminum nitride (AlN) or with aluminum oxide (Al2O3) grown by the atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. The metallization contacts of the detectors were made by titanium tungsten (TiW) and gold (Au) metal sputtering depositions. The pad detector structures were patterned with proximity-contactless photolithography techniques followed by lift-off patterning of the electrodes. The detector properties were characterized at room temperature by Transient Current Technique (TCT) measurements. The obtained results were compared and verified by numerical TCAD simulations of the detector response. Our results indicate that higher signal charge was collected from samples with Al2O3. Furthermore, no significant laser light induced signal decay by CdTe material polarization was observed within order of 30 min of continuous illumination.

Cadmium telluride is a favorable material for X-ray detection as it has an outstanding characteristic for room temperature operation. It is a high-Z material with excellent photon radiation absorption properties. However, CdTe single crystals may include a large number of extended crystallographic defects, such as grain boundaries, twins, and tellurium (Te) inclusions, which can have an impact on detector performance. A Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) local defect model has been developed to investigate the effects of local defects on charge collection efficiency (CCE). We studied a 1 mm thick Schottky-type CdTe radiation detector with transient-current technique by using a red laser at room temperature. By raster scanning the detector surface we were able to study signal shaping within the bulk, and to locate surface defects by observing their impact on the CCE. In this paper we present our TCAD model with localized defect, and compare the simulation results to TCT measurements. In the model an inclusion with a diameter of 10 μm was assumed. The center of the defect was positioned at 6 μm distance from the surface. We show that the defect has a notable effect on current transients, which in turn affect the CCE of the CdTe detector. The simulated charge collection at the position of the defect decreases by 80 % in comparison to the defect-free case. The simulations show that the defects give a characteristic shape to TCT signal. This can further be used to detect defects in CdTe detectors and to estimate the overall defect density in the material.

Inelastic nuclear collisions of hadrons incident on silicon sensors can generate secondary highly ionising particles (HIPs) and deposit as much energy within the sensor bulk as several hundred minimum ionising particles. The large signals generated by these ‘HIP events’ can momentarily saturate the APV25 front-end readout chip for the silicon strip tracker (SST) sub-detector of the compact muon solenoid (CMS) experiment, resulting in deadtime in the detector readout system. This paper presents studies of this phenomenon through simulation, laboratory measurements and dedicated beam tests. A proposed change to a front-end component to reduce the APV25 sensitivity to HIP events is also examined. The results are used to infer the expected effect on the performance of the CMS SST at the future large hadron collider. The induced inefficiencies are at the percent level and will have a negligible effect on the physics performance of the SST.

Abstract We have made a quantitative study about the thermal activation of thermal donors in high resistivity magnetic Czochralski silicon. The thermal donor activation has been performed through a thermal treatment at 430 °C up to a total time of 80 min. The space charge density after each annealing step has been extracted from capacitance–voltage measurements. If the starting material is boron-doped p-type high-resistivity Czochralski silicon, the thermal donor generation process can be utilized in order to produce p + /n − /n + detectors. The last thermal process step, i.e. the sintering of aluminum, is intentionally carried out at the temperature where thermal donors are created. According to our results, we have improved the previously reported model of the thermal donor generation.

Modeling and simulations have been performed for the charge injected diodes (CID) for the application in SLHC. MIP-induced current and charges have been calculated for segmented detectors with various radiation fluences, up to the highest SLHC fluence of 1 x 10{sup 16} n{sub eq}/cm{sup 2}. Although the main advantage of CID detectors is their virtual full depletion at any radiation fluence at a modest bias voltage (<600 V), the simulation of CID and fitting to the existing data have shown that the CID operation mode also reduces the free carrier trapping, resulting in a much higher charge collection at the SLHC fluence than that in a standard Si detector. The reduction in free carrier trapping by almost one order of magnitude is due to the fact that the CID mode also pre-fills the traps, making them neutral and not active in trapping. It has been found that, electron traps can be pre-filled by injection of electrons from the n{sup +} contact, and hole traps can be pre-filled by injection of holes from the p{sup +} contact. The CID mode of detector operation can be achieved by a modestly low temperature of around -40 C, achievable by the proposed CO{sub 2}more » cooling for detector upgrades in SLHC. High charge collection comparable to the 3D electrode Si detectors makes the CID Si detector a valuable alternative for SLHC detectors for its much easier fabrication process.« less

The high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider, foreseen for 2026, necessitates the replacement of the CMS experiment’s silicon tracker. The innermost layer of the new pixel detector will be exposed to severe radiation, corresponding to a 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence of up to $$\Phi _{eq} = 2 \times 10^{16}$$ cm $$^{-2}$$ , and an ionising dose of $${\approx } 5$$ MGy after an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb $$^{-1}$$ . Thin, planar silicon sensors are good candidates for this application, since the degradation of the signal produced by traversing particles is less severe than for thicker devices. In this paper, the results obtained from the characterisation of 100 and 200 $$\upmu $$ m thick p-bulk pad diodes and strip sensors irradiated up to fluences of $$\Phi _{eq} = 1.3 \times 10^{16}$$ cm $$^{-2}$$ are shown.

A new CMS Tracker is under development for operation at the High Luminosity LHC from 2026 onwards. It includes an outer tracker based on dedicated modules that will reconstruct short track segments, called stubs, using spatially coincident clusters in two closely spaced silicon sensor layers. These modules allow the rejection of low transverse momentum track hits and reduce the data volume before transmission to the first level trigger. The inclusion of tracking information in the trigger decision is essential to limit the first level trigger accept rate. A customized front-end readout chip, the CMS Binary Chip (CBC), containing stub finding logic has been designed for this purpose. A prototype module, equipped with the CBC chip, has been constructed and operated for the first time in a 4 GeV/c positron beam at DESY. The behaviour of the stub finding was studied for different angles of beam incidence on a module, which allows an estimate of the sensitivity to transverse momentum within the future CMS detector. A sharp transverse momentum threshold around 2 GeV/c was demonstrated, which meets the requirement to reject a large fraction of low momentum tracks present in the LHC environment on-detector. This is the first realistic demonstration of a silicon tracking module that is able to select data, based on the particle's transverse momentum, for use in a first level trigger at the LHC . The results from this test are described here.

We describe the fabrication process of fullsize silicon microstrip detectors processed on silicon wafers grown by magnetic Czochralski method. Defect analysis by DLTS spectroscopy as well as minority carrier lifetime measurements by µPCD method are presented. The electrical and detection properties of the Czochralski silicon detectors are comparable to those of leading commercial detector manufacturers. The radiation hardness of the Czochralski silicon detectors was proved to be superior to the devices made of traditional Float Zone silicon material.

We have processed full-size strip detectors on Czochralski grown silicon wafers with resistivity of about 1.2 kΩ cm. Wafers grown with Czochralski method intrinsically contain high concentrations of oxygen, and thus have potential for high radiation tolerance. Detectors and test diodes were irradiated with 10 MeV protons. The 1-MeV neutron equivalent irradiation doses were 1.6×1014 and 8.5×1013 cm−2 for detectors, and up to 5.0×1014 cm−3 for test diodes. After irradiations, depletion voltages and leakage currents were measured. Czochralski silicon devices proved to be significantly more radiation hard than the reference devices made on traditional detector materials.

n+/p−/p+ pad detectors processed at the Microelectronics Center of Helsinki University of Technology on boron-doped p-type high-resistivity magnetic Czochralski (MCz-Si) silicon substrates have been investigated by the transient current technique (TCT) measurements between 100 and 240 K. The detectors were irradiated by 9 MeV protons at the Accelerator Laboratory of University of Helsinki up to 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence of 2×1015 n/cm2. In some of the detectors the thermal donors (TD) were introduced by intentional heat treatment at 430 °C. Hole trapping time constants and full depletion voltage values were extracted from the TCT data. We observed that hole trapping times in the order of 10 ns were found in heavily (above 1×1015 neq/cm2) irradiated samples. These detectors could be fully depleted below 500 V in the temperature range of 140–180 K.

Radiation hardness up to 1016 neq/cm2 is required in the future HEP experiments for most inner detectors. However, 1016 neq/cm2 fluence is well beyond the radiation tolerance of even the most advanced semiconductor detectors fabricated by commonly adopted technologies: the carrier trapping will limit the charge collection depth to an effective range of 20–30 μm regardless of depletion depth. Significant improvement of the radiation hardness of silicon sensors has been taken place within RD39. Fortunately the cryogenic tool we have been using provides us a convenient way to solve the detector charge collection efficiency (CCE) problem at SLHC radiation level (1016 neq/cm2). There are two key approaches in our efforts: (1) use of the charge/current injection to manipulate the detector internal electric field in such a way that it can be depleted at a modest bias voltage at cryogenic temperature range (⩽230 K); and (2) freezing out of the trapping centers that affects the CCE at cryogenic temperatures lower than that of the LN2 temperature. In our first approach, we have developed the advanced radiation hard detectors using charge or current injection, the current injected diodes (CID). In a CID, the electric field is controlled by injected current, which is limited by the space charge, yielding a nearly uniform electric field in the detector, independent of the radiation fluence. In our second approach, we have developed models of radiation-induced trapping levels and the physics of their freezing out at cryogenic temperatures. In this approach, we intend to study the trapping effect at temperatures below LN2 temperature. A freeze-out of trapping can certainly help in the development of ultra-radiation hard Si detectors for SLHC. A detector CCE measurement system using ultra-fast picosecond laser with a He cryostat has been built at CERN. This system can be used to find out the practical cryogenic temperature range that can be used to freeze out the radiation-induced trapping levels, and it is ready for measurements on extremely heavily irradiated silicon detectors. Initial data from this system will be presented.

The subsystems of the CMS silicon strip tracker were integrated and commissioned at the Tracker Integration Facility (TIF) in the period from November 2006 to July 2007. As part of the commissioning, large samples of cosmic ray data were recorded under various running conditions in the absence of a magnetic field. Cosmic rays detected by scintillation counters were used to trigger the readout of up to 15\,\% of the final silicon strip detector, and over 4.7~million events were recorded. This document describes the cosmic track reconstruction and presents results on the performance of track and hit reconstruction as from dedicated analyses.

Tracking detectors for future high-luminosity particle physics experiments have to be simultaneously radiation hard and cost efficient. This paper describes processing and characterization of p <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup> /n <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-</sup> /n <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup> (n-type silicon bulk) detectors made of high-resistivity Magnetic Czochralski silicon (MCz-Si) substrates with 6-inch wafer diameter. The processing was carried out on a line used for large-scale production of sensors using standard fabrication methods, such as implanting polysilicon resistors to bias individual sensor strips. Special care was taken to avoid the creation of Thermal Donors (TD) during processing. The sensors have a full depletion voltage of 120-150 V which are uniform over the investigated sensors. All of the leakage current densities were below 55 nA/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> at 200 V bias voltage. A strip sensor with 768 channels was attached to readout electronics and tested in particle beam with a data acquisition (DAQ) similar to the system used by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. The test beam results show a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 40 for the test beam sensor. The results demonstrate that MCz-Si detectors can reliably be manufactured in the industrial scale semiconductor process.

High resistivity and high oxygen concentration of silicon wafers can be beneficial for the radiation hardness of silicon detectors. Wafers of Magnetic Czochralski silicon (MCz-Si) can be grown with a resistivity of a few kΩcm and with well-controlled, high oxygen concentration. According to the beam test results presented in this paper, n-type MCz-Si bulk, p-strip readout detectors with can be operated with acceptable signal-to-noise ratio up to the irradiation fluence of 1×1015 cm−2 1-MeV neutron equivalent. The improved radiation hardness compared to that of traditional p-in-n Float Zone silicon (p-in-n FZ-Si) detectors can be explained by better electric field distribution inside MCz-Si detectors. The difference between the distributions is clearly shown by Transient Current Technique (TCT) measurements, presented in this paper. Thus, strip detectors made on n-type MCz-Si are a feasible option for the outer tracker layers of the potential upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the Super-LHC. This corresponds approximately 95% of the total area of silicon detectors in the Super-LHC.

The CERN RD39 Collaboration is developing super-radiation hard cryogenic Si detectors for applications in experiments of the LHC and the future LHC Upgrade. Radiation hardness up to the fluence of 1016 neq/cm2 is required in the future experiments. Significant improvement in the radiation hardness of silicon sensors has taken place during the past years. However, 1016 neq/cm2 is well beyond the radiation tolerance of even the most advanced semiconductor detectors made by commonly adopted technologies. Furthermore, at this radiation load the carrier trapping will limit the charge collection depth to the range of 20–30 μm regardless of the depletion depth. The key of our approach is freezing the trapping that affects Charge Collection Efficiency (CCE).

Experimental results and simulations of Charge Collection Efficiency (CCE) of Current Injected Detectors (CIDs) are focused. CID is a concept where the current is limited by the space charge. The injected carriers will be trapped by the deep levels. This induces a stable electric field through the entire bulk regardless of the irradiation fluence the detector has been exposed. Our results show that the CCE of CIDs is about two times higher than of regular detectors when irradiated up to 1×1016 cm−2. The higher CCE is achieved already at −50 °C temperatures.

In 2017 a new pixel detector was installed in the CMS detector. This so-called Phase-1 pixel detector features four barrel layers in the central region and three disks per end in the forward regions. The upgraded pixel detector requires an upgraded data acquisition (DAQ) system to accept a new data format and larger event sizes. A new DAQ and control system has been developed based on a combination of custom and commercial microTCA parts. Custom mezzanine cards on standard carrier cards provide a front-end driver for readout, and two types of front-end controller for configuration and the distribution of clock and trigger signals. Before the installation of the detector the DAQ system underwent a series of integration tests, including readout of the pilot pixel detector, which was constructed with prototype Phase-1 electronics and operated in CMS from 2015 to 2016, quality assurance of the CMS Phase-1 detector during its assembly, and testing with the CMS Central DAQ. This paper describes the Phase-1 pixel DAQ and control system, along with the integration tests and results. A description of the operational experience and performance in data taking is included.

We present the current status of our project of developing a photon counting detector for medical imaging. An example motivation lays in producing a monitoring and dosimetry device for boron neutron capture therapy, currently not commercially available. Our approach combines in-house developed detectors based on cadmium telluride or thick silicon with readout chip technology developed for particle physics experiments at CERN. Here we describe the manufacturing process of our sensors as well as the processing steps for the assembly of first prototypes. The prototypes use currently the PSI46digV2.1-r readout chip. The accompanying readout electronics chain that was used for first measurements will also be discussed. Finally we present an advanced algorithm developed by us for image reconstruction using such photon counting detectors with focus on boron neutron capture therapy. This work is conducted within a consortium of Finnish research groups from Helsinki Institute of Physics, Aalto University, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT and Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) under the RADDESS program of Academy of Finland.

Abstract During the operation of the CMS experiment at the High-Luminosity LHC the silicon sensors of the Phase-2 Outer Tracker will be exposed to radiation levels that could potentially deteriorate their performance. Previous studies had determined that planar float zone silicon with n-doped strips on a p-doped substrate was preferred over p-doped strips on an n-doped substrate. The last step in evaluating the optimal design for the mass production of about 200 m 2 of silicon sensors was to compare sensors of baseline thickness (about 300 μm) to thinned sensors (about 240 μm), which promised several benefits at high radiation levels because of the higher electric fields at the same bias voltage. This study provides a direct comparison of these two thicknesses in terms of sensor characteristics as well as charge collection and hit efficiency for fluences up to 1.5 × 10 15 n eq /cm 2 . The measurement results demonstrate that sensors with about 300 μm thickness will ensure excellent tracking performance even at the highest considered fluence levels expected for the Phase-2 Outer Tracker.

We report on test beam results obtained with a 32.5 cm2 microstrip detector processed on an n-type 380 μm thick magnetic Czochralski (MCZ) grown silicon substrate with 1200 Ωcm effective resistivity. The full depletion voltage of the as-processed detector was 420 V with a leakage current of 2 μA. The AC coupled detector had 1024 p+ strips, 10 μm by width and 6.154 cm by length with a pitch of 50 μm. The detector was irradiated with 10 MeV protons to 1.6×1014 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence and annealed for 345 days at room temperature. The post-irradiation full depletion voltage of the detector was 225 V. The leakage current at the full depletion measured at −10 °C was 261 μA. The beam tests were carried out at the CERN H2 area using a Silicon Beam Telescope, which consists of pairs of horizontal and vertical position sensitive silicon detectors. This telescope determines the tracks of incoming particles and hence provides a reference measurement for the detector characterization. In the beam test an average signal to noise ratio of 3 with a spatial resolution of 20 μm and a particle detection efficiency of 36% were measured. These results show that the MCZ device detected particles, which encourages further investigations of MCZ silicon as a detector material. The poor performance of the MCZ detector may be explained by the problems observed in the reference telescope.

Abstract Carrier lifetime variations dependent on proton irradiation with fluences in the range from 5×10 12 to 10 15  cm −2 were investigated in high resistivity oxygenated silicon wafers and pad detectors. The fast recombination and slow trapping constituents within recombination transients have been distinguished by combining analyses of the excess carrier decay dependence on the excitation intensity, bias illumination and temperature, measured using the technique of microwave absorption by free carriers. Differences in the rate of formation and type of defects in the ranges of moderate and highest proton irradiation fluences have been revealed from the inverse lifetime dependence on irradiation fluence. The activation factors of the capture centres have been evaluated from carrier lifetime variations in the range of low and elevated temperatures.

A new approach to improve Si detector radiation hardness/tolerance, termed as DRIVE (Detector Recovery/Improvement Via Elevated-temperature-annealing), has been realized by annealing of oxygen-rich (magnetic Czochralski), proton-irradiated Si detectors (with negative space charge before annealing) at medium temperature for a few hours. The DRIVE approach has been proved to lead to the dramatic decrease in detector leakage current, decrease in detector negative space charge concentration, and an eventual space charge sign inversion from negative to positive. Defect studies have shown significant reduction in overall defect concentrations after annealing.

Implementation of the CMS policy on long-term data preservation, re-use and open access has started.Current practices in providing data additional to published papers and distributing simplified data-samples for outreach are promoted and consolidated.The first measures have been taken for analysis and data preservation for the internal use of the collaboration and for open access to part of the data.Two complementary approaches are followed.First, a virtual machine environment, which will pack all ingredients needed to compile and run a software release with which the legacy data was reconstructed.Second, a validation framework, maintaining the capability not only to read the old raw data, but also to reprocess them with an updated release or to another format to help ensure long-term reusability of the legacy data.

Abstract The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will undergo major upgrades to increase the instantaneous luminosity up to 5–7.5×10 34 cm -2 s -1 . This High Luminosity upgrade of the LHC (HL-LHC) will deliver a total of 3000–4000 fb -1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13–14 TeV. To cope with these challenging environmental conditions, the strip tracker of the CMS experiment will be upgraded using modules with two closely-spaced silicon sensors to provide information to include tracking in the Level-1 trigger selection. This paper describes the performance, in a test beam experiment, of the first prototype module based on the final version of the CMS Binary Chip front-end ASIC before and after the module was irradiated with neutrons. Results demonstrate that the prototype module satisfies the requirements, providing efficient tracking information, after being irradiated with a total fluence comparable to the one expected through the lifetime of the experiment.

Abstract To study the impact of various defects associated close to the surface layer of CdTe material, we use scanning laser Transient Current Technique. This gives us an overview of different compositional inhomogeneities, such as dislocations, grain boundaries, and tellurium inclusions. Particularly, reconstructed high resolution spatial images provide a map of different electrically active defects. Each spatial point contains a recording of a current pulse, from which shape we calculate drift times and total collected charge. Charge mobility and charge loss are extracted from current pulses and show the effects of charge trapping and polarization. In addition, we investigate the impact of the ALD alumina-CdTe interface and negative fixed charge trapping using both passivated and non-passivated CdTe crystals.

A pixelated silicon detector, developed originally for particle physics experiments, was used for a beam profile measurement of a cobalt-60 (Co-60) irradiator in a water phantom. The beam profile was compared to a profile measured with a pinpoint ionization chamber. The differences in the pixel detector and pinpoint chamber relative profiles were within approximately 2% of profile maximum, and after calculating correction factors with Monte Carlo simulations for the pixel detector, the maximum difference was decreased to approximately 1% of profile maximum. The detector’s capability to measure pulse-height was used to record an electron pulse-height spectrum in water in the Co-60 beam, and the results agreed well with simulations.

In this study, we investigated the influence of tellurium inclusions on the electrical properties of cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor detectors. Using high-resolution infrared transient current technique (TCT) for tellurium mapping in CdTe material, we conducted a comprehensive raster scan across the entire detector area, focusing on the separation of tellurium inclusions from electrode-induced polarization effects. We analyzed transient currents from different time intervals and calculated the collected charge for each time frame, revealing the temporal dynamics of charge collection and the potential influence of localized defects on the overall charge distribution.Additionally, we employed high-resolution 3D raster scans to obtain a clearer and more detailed understanding of the charging behaviour. By selecting only waveforms that met specific criteria, such as signal timing and amplitude threshold within the observed time period, we isolated relevant waveforms and eliminated potential noise or interference. Our results showed minimal lateral movement of charge within the centres of tellurium inclusions during the time interval of 5-20 ns, suggesting charge localization and accumulation in the central regions of the inclusions. This would provide further insights into the charge dynamics in CdTe materials and help optimize the performance of semiconductor detectors under varying conditions, especially as we can control laser settings we can connect laser fluencies to charge accumulation.

We have tested the detection performance of a strip detector processed on silicon wafer grown by magnetic Czochralski (MCZ) method. This is the first time a full size Czochralski detector has been tested in a beam, although the advantages of CZ silicon have been known before. Prior to test beam measurements, the electrical characteristics of the Czochralski silicon detectors were found to be appropriate for particle detection. Using the Helsinki Silicon Beam telescope at CERN H2 test beam, the performance of the Czochralski silicon detector was shown to be comparable with the existing silicon strip detectors.

We undertook systematic transient current technique (TCT) studies, measuring the shapes of electron- and hole-transient currents in three sets of samples irradiated by 24 GeV/c protons at fluences 1.6×1014–2.4×1015 p/cm2. We carried out these measurements after leaving the samples to anneal for 22–23 days at room temperature. The three sets comprised (1) magnetic Czochralski (MCZ) n-type Si detectors; (2) MCZ p-type Si detectors; and (3) float-zone (FZ) n-type Si detectors (control set). The control set showed no surprises. The space charge sign inversion (SCSI) had already occurred at the lowest fluence (1.6×1014 p/cm2), and the double junction/double peak effect was readily apparent, with the first junction, the minor one, near the p+ contact, which changes very little with bias voltages. It is superseded by the second junction near the n+ contact (negative space charge) at biases higher than the full-depletion voltage. For both MCZ n-type and p-type detectors, the double junction/double peak effect also was initiated at the lowest fluence, but the standard SCSI evident in FZ n-type detectors (wherein the negative space charge dominates the entire detector) was not seen in that fluence range. However, in these two groups, the double junction/peak effect persisted into subsequent higher fluences with almost equal junctions near the p+ and n+ contacts, regardless of bias voltages, which may be much larger than the full-depletion voltages. This new effect, termed the equal-double-junction effect, is unique for the 24 GeV/c proton-irradiated MCZ (n and p) Si detectors. It is evident by the almost identical shapes in TCT currents, before trapping corrections, for both electrons (red laser on the p+ contact) and holes (on the n+ contact), with the first peak always dominating a small second peak at any bias voltages. After trapping corrections, the heights of the two peaks are about the same, suggesting the existence of nearly equal-double junctions in the detector.

RD39 collaboration develops new detector techniques for particle trackers, which have to withstand fluences up to 1016cm−2 of high-energy particles. The work focuses on the optimization of silicon detectors and their readout electronics while keeping the temperature as a free parameter. Our results so far suggest that the best operating temperature is around 130K. We shall also describe in this paper how the current-injected mode of operation reduces the polarization of the bulk silicon at low temperatures, and how the engineering and materials problems related with vacuum and low temperature can be solved.

Based on the results of capacitance–voltage measurements and transient current technique, it was earlier deduced that the n-type bulk of float zone silicon radiation detectors changes type in heavy irradiation. This paper describes the results of measuring the voltages and electric fields with a scanning electron microscope using the voltage–contrast effect, inside radiation detectors that were irradiated with 10 MeV protons with several fluences. The results confirm the earlier observations and give more accuracy to the electric field measurements.

This study focuses on evaluating the properties of voltage termination structure (VTS) with multiple guard rings in n+-p-p+ silicon detectors with Al2O3 field isolation films processed by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) method. The dependences of the ring potential over the guard rings with respect to bias voltage were studied experimentally and compared with the results of simulations using negative charge Qf in Al2O3 films as a parameter. The agreement of the experimental and calculated punch-through voltages switching the ring operation verified that the punch-through model built for the p+-n-n+ detectors passivated with positively charged SiO2 layers is also applicable for the n+-p-p+ detectors with Al2O3 field isolator with negative charge polarity. The results indicated an efficient potential distribution over the VTS rings. The amount of the oxide charge was shown to be an essential parameter for the detector performance. From the comparison of the experimental data and simulations for Si detector with the used design and processing technology, Qf of -(4–7)×1011 cm−2 was found to be the value explaining the properties of VTS in the detector under study. The simulations showed that Qf of -7×1011 cm−2 is an upper limit critical for the appearance of high electric field regions in the VTS. The increase in the silicon resistivity to 20 kωcm was found to be an efficient way to reduce the electric field below the value initiating the carrier avalanche multiplication.

Ion beam induced current (IBIC) analysis allows to study the effects of various materials selection to the detector performance. We analysed Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) pad detectors which were passivated either by using aluminium nitride (AlN) or by aluminium oxide (Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> ). By using microbeam with 2 MeV protons, we were able to measure various surface effects, the charge collection efficiency, and analyse the impact of surface defects which could reduce the detector performance in applications such as medical imaging. The detectors we measured had surface area of 1 cm × 1 cm, and thickness of 1 mm. Various bias settings were applied to allow detailed charge collection studies. In this paper we show some selected results of the IBIC measurements.

Abstract Aluminium oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) has been proposed as an alternative to thermal silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) as field insulator and surface passivation for silicon detectors, where it could substitute p-stop/p-spray insulation implants between pixels due to its negative oxide charge, and enable capacitive coupling of segments by means of its higher dielectric constant. Al 2 O 3 is commonly grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD), which allows the deposition of thin layers with excellent precision. In this work, we report the electrical characterization of single pad detectors (diodes) and MOS capacitors fabricated on magnetic Czochralski silicon substrates and using Al 2 O 3 as field insulator. Devices are studied by capacitance-voltage, current-voltage, and transient current technique measurements. We evaluate the influence of the oxygen precursors in the ALD process, as well as the effect of gamma irradiation, on the properties of these devices. We observe that leakage currents in diodes before the onset of breakdown are low for all studied ALD processes. Charge collection as measured by transient current technique (TCT) is also independent of the choice of oxygen precursor. The Al 2 O 3 films deposited with O 3 possess a higher negative oxide charge than films deposited by H 2 O, However, in diodes a higher oxide charge is linked to earlier breakdown, as has been predicted by simulation studies. A combination of H 2 and O 3 precursors results in a good compromise between the beneficial properties provided by the respective individual precursors.

While Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) excels in terms of photon radiation absorption properties and outperforms silicon (Si) in this respect, the crystal growth, characterization and processing into a radiation detector is much more complicated. Additionally, large concentrations of extended crystallographic defects, such as grain boundaries, twins, and tellurium (Te) inclusions, vary from crystal to crystal and can reduce the spectroscopic performance of the processed detector. A quality assessment of the material prior to the complex fabrication process is therefore crucial. To locate the Te-defects, we scan the crystals with infrared microscopy (IRM) in different layers, obtaining a 3D view of the defect distribution. This provides us with important information on the defect density and locations of Te inclusions, and thus a handle to assess the quality of the material. For the classification of defects in the large amount of IRM image data, a convolutional neural network is employed. From the post-processed and analysed IRM data, 3D defect maps of the CdTe crystals are created, which make different patterns of defect agglomerations inside the crystals visible. In total, more than 100 crystals were scanned with the current IRM setup. In this paper, we compare two crystal batches, each consisting of 12 samples. We find significant differences in the defect distributions of the crystals.

An increase in the radiation levels during the high-luminosity operation of the Large Hadron Collider calls for the development of silicon-based pixel detectors that are used for particle tracking and vertex reconstruction. Unlike the conventionally used conductively coupled (DC-coupled) detectors that are prone to an increment in leakage currents due to radiation, capacitively coupled (AC-coupled) detectors are anticipated to be in operation in future collider experiments suitable for tracking purposes. The implementation of AC-coupling to micro-scale pixel sensor areas enables one to provide an enhanced isolation of radiation-induced leakage currents. The motivation of this study is the development of new generation capacitively coupled (AC-coupled) pixel sensors with coupling insulators having good dielectric strength and radiation hardness simultaneously. The AC-coupling insulator thin films were aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) and hafnium oxide (HfO 2 ) grown by the atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. A comparison study was performed based on the dielectric material used in MOS, MOSFET, and AC-coupled pixel prototypes processed on high resistivity p-type Magnetic Czochralski silicon (MCz-Si) substrates. Post-irradiation studies with 10 MeV protons up to a fluence of 10 15 protons/cm 2 suggest HfO 2 to be a better candidate as it provides higher sensitivity with negative charge accumulation on irradiation. Furthermore, even though the nature of the dielectric does not affect the electric field within the AC-coupled pixel sensor, samples with HfO 2 are comparatively less susceptible to undergo an early breakdown due to irradiation. Edge-transient current technique (e-TCT) measurements show a prominent double-junction effect as expected in heavily irradiated p-type detectors, in accordance with the simulation studies.

Abstract Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is a high- Z material with excellent photon radiation absorption properties, making it a promising material to include in radiation detection technologies. However, the brittleness of CdTe crystals as well as their varying concentration of defects necessitate a thorough quality assessment before the complex detector processing procedure. We present our quality assessment of CdTe as a detector material for multispectral medical imaging, a research which is conducted as part of the Consortium Project Multispectral Photon-counting for Medical Imaging and Beam characterization (MPMIB). The aim of the project is to develop novel CdTe detectors and obtain spectrum-per-pixel information that make the distinction between different radiation types and tissues possible. To evaluate the defect density inside the crystals — which can deteriorate the detector performance — we employ infrared microscopy (IRM). Posterior data analysis allows us to visualise the defect distributions as 3D defect maps. Additionally, we investigate front and backside differences of the material with current-voltage (IV) measurements to determine the preferred surface for the pixelisation of the crystal, and perform test measurements with the prototypes to provide feedback for further processing. We present the different parts of our quality assessment chain and will close with first experimental results obtained with one of our prototype photon-counting detectors in a small tomographic setup.

Abstract The Short Strip ASIC (SSA) is one of the four front-end chips designed for the upgrade of the CMS Outer Tracker for the High Luminosity LHC. Together with the Macro-Pixel ASIC (MPA) it will instrument modules containing a strip and a macro-pixel sensor stacked on top of each other. The SSA provides both full readout of the strip hit information when triggered, and, together with the MPA, correlated clusters called stubs from the two sensors for use by the CMS Level-1 (L1) trigger system. Results from the first prototype module consisting of a sensor and two SSA chips are presented. The prototype module has been characterized at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility using a 120 GeV proton beam.

We present a cosmic rack, the FinnCRack. This device is a silicon strip detector-based telescope that measures tracks of cosmic particles. The FinnCRack is constructed using components of the Tracker Outer Barrel (TOB) of the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. The device is part of the TOB integration and verification effort together with its sister telescope, the CERN CRack. Both CRacks mimick a six degree slice of the TOB barrel structure. The FinnCRack is intended to (a) serve as a platform for TOB software development, both analysis and online software such as run control; (b) be used for noise and cluster shape studies; (c) act as a reference tracker in detector studies; and (d) provide a testbed for track-based alignment testing and development. The construction and setup of the FinnCRack have been documented in detail—the entire chain from connecting cables to physics data analysis—and the operation guide was tested in practice. Both these actions serve the purpose of training and attracting future HEP students. We also showed that we were able to measure cosmic muon tracks.

Two full size strip detectors were investigated in this study: one with p+ strips (p+/n−/n+) and another with n+ strips (n+/p−/p+). Both detectors, are made of magnetic Czochralski silicon (MCz-Si) and irradiated to S-LHC fluencies, were tested with 225 GeV muon beam in the CERN H2 area. The Current Injected Detector (CID) sensors were operated in a cooling box capable of providing a −53 °C temperature. Results indicate a relative charge collection efficiency (CCE) at 5×1015 neq/cm2 above 30% in irradiated p+/n−/n+ CID detector at 600 V bias voltage. The signal to noise ratio of this CID module was about eight and a forward current of 30 μA was needed for detector biasing. In standard reverse bias, the same detector could not provide a sufficiently large signal for particle tracking purposes. A p-type (n+/p−/p+) sensor was irradiated to a fluence of 2×1015 neq/cm2 and measured under the same test beam conditions. According to the theory of CIDs developed by the CERN RD39 Collaboration, this detector module could be biased up to only 230 V due to the low irradiation fluence. The CCE at 230 V was 35% in CID operation and 20% when reverse biased.

The objective of the CERN RD50 Collaboration is to develop radiation hard semiconductor detectors for very high luminosity colliders, in particular, for the upgrade of the large hadron collider (LHC) which itself is scheduled to be operational in 2007. The approach of the RD50 has two major research lines, material engineering and device engineering. These are further subdivided into projects covering defect characterization and engineering, new detector materials, detector characterization, new detector structures and full detector systems. Presently, 264 members from 53 institutes are actively participating in the RD50 Collaboration. Detectors made of defect engineered substrates, e.g. high resistivity magnetic Czochralski (MCz-Si), epitaxial silicon (Epi-Si) on Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si) substrate, intentionally thermal donor (TD) compensated p-type MCz-Si and oxygen enriched (DOFZ) silicon, have been demonstrated by the RD50 Collaboration. An overview and highlights of the results of these defect engineering techniques were given in this report.

We are studying the operation of silicon microstrip detector with readout electronics in the temperature range from 90 to 130 K. The sensor can be operated in the current-injection mode which significantly improves its radiation hardness. A first module prototype has been built, with APV25 readout chips and an embedded microtube, providing efficient low-mass cooling of the whole module with a two-phase flow of N2 or Ar. First pedestal and pulse shape temperature dependencies are presented for this module. We have also built an edgeless test module with two pairs of laser cut sensors, with both angular and parallel cuts with respect to the strips (at 120μm pitch). We are studying the efficiency of the microstrip sensors very close (<200μm) to the physical border of the cut silicon crystal and present here some electrical characteristics.

CERN RD39 Collaboration is working on radiation hard cryogenic silicon detectors, for environments such as at the Super-LHC. A promising technique for the operation of low temperature detectors and diodes is the current injection of pre-irradiated samples (CID). A new setup, based on the Cryogenic Transient Current Technique (C-TCT), has been built to characterize Si samples (CCE). In addition, we report here some preliminary measurements for the evaluation of laser and plasma-cut sensors developed for edgeless detectors, for which the sensitive area should extend to a few μm from the physical border.

We studied the impact of boundary walls and inclusions to the charge collection efficiency (CCE) of cadmium telluride (CdTe) pad detectors. By using ion beam-induced charge (IBIC) analysis, we were able to locate and classify various defects. We used 2-MeV protons that have a penetration depth of about 40 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in bulk CdTe. The detectors we measured had a surface area of 1 cm <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times \,\, 1$ </tex-math></inline-formula> cm and a thickness of 1 mm. They were passivated either by using aluminum nitride (AlN) or by aluminum oxide (Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> ) and had a mesh of titanium tungsten Schottky contacts on both anode and cathode sides. In this paper, we show the results of our measurements and analyze the potential impact of the found defects on the performance of CdTe detectors with Geant4 simulations.

This thesis describes the characterization of irradiated and non-irradiated segmented detectors made of high-resistivity (>1 kΩcm) magnetic Czochralski (MCZ) silicon. It is shown that the radiation hardness (RH) of the protons of these detectors is higher than that of devices made of traditional materials such as Float Zone (FZ) silicon or Diffusion Oxygenated Float Zone (DOFZ) silicon due to the presence of intrinsic oxygen (> 5 x 10 cm). The MCZ devices therefore present an interesting alternative for future highenergy physics experiments. In the large hadron collider (LHC), the RH of the detectors is a critical issue due to the high luminosity (10 cms) corresponding to the expected total fluencies of fast hadrons above 10 cm. This RH improvement is important since radiation damage in the detector bulk material reduces the detector performance and because some of the devices produced from standard detector-grade silicon, e.g. FZ silicon with negligible oxygen concentration, might not survive the planned operational period of the LHC experiments. In this work, segmented detectors and test structures were processed, measured, irradiated with different particles (protons of different energies, neutrons and high-energy electrons) and tested with a Co gamma source and with high-energy muon and pion beams. The electrical characterizations show that, for proton irradiation, the MCZ silicon is significantly radiation harder than traditionally used detector materials. In gamma irradiation, MCZ silicon detectors behave similarly to the DOFZ silicon detectors. For neutron radiation, there is only a small difference between MCZ silicon and the reference devices made of standard FZ silicon. The beam test results with the full-size detectors show that the properties of the high-resistivity MCZ silicon are suitable for particle detection both before and after heavy proton irradiation.

A new approach to improve Si detector radiation hardness/tolerance, termed as DRIVE (detector recovery/improvement via elevated-temperature-annealing), has been realized by annealing of oxygen-rich (magnetic CZ, MCZ), proton-irradiated Si detectors (with negative space charge before annealing) at medium temperature for a few hours. The DRIVE approach has been proved to lead to the dramatic decrease in detector leakage current, decrease in detector negative space charge concentration, and an eventual space charge sign inversion from negative to positive. Defect studies have shown significant reduction in overall defect concentrations after annealing

Radiation hardness is in the focus of the development of particle tracking and photon imaging detector installations. Semiconductor detectors, widely used in particle physics experiments, have turned into capacitive-coupled (AC-coupled) detectors from the originally developed conductively coupled (DC-coupled) detectors. This is due to the superior isolation of radiation-induced leakage current in AC-coupled detectors. However, some modern detector systems, such as the tracking detectors in the CERN LHC CMS or ATLAS experiments, are still DC-coupled. This originates from the difficulty of implementing AC coupling on very small pixel detector areas. In this report, we describe our advances in the detector processing technology. The first topic is the applications of the atomic layer deposition processing technology, which enables the very high densities of capacitance and resistance that are needed when the dimensions of the physical segmentation of pixel detectors need to be scaled down. The second topic is the flip-chip/bump-bonding interconnection technology, which is necessary in order to manufacture pixel detector modules on a large scale with a more than 99% yield of noise-free and faultless pixels and detector channels.

To cope up with high pile-up rates during Phase-2 operation of the LHC, the CMS experiment will install a precision Minimum Ionising Particle Timing Detector (MTD), between the tracker and calorimeter, which will have a timing resolution of ∼30 ps.The endcap part of the MTD, called the Endcap Timing Layer (ETL), will be based on Low-Gain Avalanche Detector (LGAD) Technology.In this paper, the authors have performed a study on UFSD3.1 LGAD production from Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK).The objective of this production was to optimise the interplay between the p-stop dose and the inter-pad terminal strategy.Results show that the nominal no-gain region width value between pads does not affect the breakdown voltage of the sensors at low p-stop doses.A comparative study on the effect of thermal donors induced in the bulk of the sensor was performed by capacitance versus voltage measurements.Further, the property of the sensors were investigated using infra-red (IR) laser, by performing voltage scans and inter-pad profile measurements with gain variation, on changing temperature in Transient Current Technique (TCT).Results show no significant change in the charge collection efficiency and measured no-gain region width values of sensors irrespective of the nature of the bulk.

We have developed a novel data acquisition system for measuring tracking parameters of a silicon detector in a particle beam. The system is based on a commercial Analog-to-Digital VME module and a PC Linux based Data Acquisition System. This DAQ is realized with C++ code using object-oriented techniques. Track parameters for the beam particles were reconstructed using off-line analysis code and automatic detector position alignment algorithm. The new DAQ was used to test novel Czochralski type silicon detectors. The important silicon detector parameters, including signal size distributions and signal to noise distributions, were successfully extracted from the detector under study. The efficiency of the detector was measured to be 95 %, the resolution about 10 micrometers, and the signal to noise ratio about 10.

In contemporary high energy physics experiments, silicon detectors are essential for recording the trajectory of new particles generated by multiple simultaneous collisions.Modern particle tracking systems may feature 100 million channels, or pixels, which need to be individually connected to read-out chains.Silicon pixel detectors are typically connected to readout chips by flip-chip bonding using solder bumps.

In contemporary high energy physics experiments, silicon detectors are essential for recording the trajectory of new particles generated by multiple simultaneous collisions. Modern particle tracking systems may feature 100 million channels, or pixels, which need to be individually connected to read-out chains. Silicon pixel detectors are typically connected to readout chips by flip-chip bonding using solder bumps.

Recent results of CERN RD39 collaboration on the development of radiation hard Si detectors operated at low to cryogenic temperatures will be presented in this paper. It has been found, in comparisons of results of simulation and charge collection data of pad and strip detectors, the charge-injected-diode (CID) operation mode of Si detectors reduces the free carrier trapping, resulting in a much higher charge collection at the SLHC fluence than that in a standard Si detector. The reduction in free carrier trapping by almost a factor of 3 is due to the fact that the CID mode pre-fills the traps, making them neutral and not active in trapping of particle-induced free carriers (signal). It has been found that, electron traps can be pre-filled by injection of electrons from the n+ contact. The CID mode of detector operation can be achieved by a modestly low temperature of ≤−40 °C and a operation bias of <600 V. Results of one CID detector application as LHC beam-loss-monitor (BLM) will be presented. Non-irradiated Si detectors has been shown, with tests by laser using our cryogenic transient-current-technique (TCT), to work quite well at LHe temperature (4 K), which are very stable with no polarization and good charge collection efficiency.

Central focus of the MPMIB project – funded via the Academy of Finland's RADDESS 2018–2021 programme – has been research towards a next-generation radiation detection system operating in a photon-counting (PC) multispectral mode: The extraction of energy spectrum per detector pixel data will lead to better efficacy in medical imaging with ionizing radiation. Therefore, it can be an important asset for diagnostic imaging and radiotherapy, enabling better diagnostic outcome with lower radiation dose as well as more versatile characterization of the radiation beam, leading for example to more accurate patient dosimetry. We present our approach of fabricating direct-conversion detectors based on cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor material hybridized with PC mode capable application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and will give a review on our achievements, challenges and lessons learned. The CdTe crystals were processed at Micronova, Finland's national research infrastructure for micro- and nanotechnology, employing techniques such as surface passivation via atomic layer deposition, and flip chip bonding of processed sensors to ASIC. Although CdTe has excellent photon radiation absorption properties, it is a brittle material that can include large concentrations of defects. We will therefore also emphasize our quality assessment of CdTe crystals and processed detectors, and present experimental data obtained with prototype detectors in X-ray and Co-60 beams at a standards laboratory.

Abstract The high-luminosity operation of the Tracker in the Compact Muon Solenid (CMS) detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment calls for the development of silicon-based sensors. This involves implementation of AC-coupling to micro-scale pixel sensor areas to provide enhanced isolation of radiation-induced leakage currents. The motivation of this study is the development of AC-pixel sensors with negative oxides (such as aluminium oxide — Al 2 O 3 and hafnium oxide — HfO 2 ) as field insulators that possess good dielectric strength and provide radiation hardness. Thin films of Al 2 O 3 and HfO 2 grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) method were used as dielectrics for capacitive coupling. A comparison study based on dielectric material used in MOS capacitors indicate HfO 2 as a better candidate since it provides higher sensitivity (where, the term sensitivity is defined as the ratio of the change in flat-band voltage to dose) to negative charge accumulation with gamma irradiation. Further, space charge sign inversion was observed for sensors processed on high resistivity p-type Magnetic Czochralski silicon (MCz-Si) substrates that were irradiated with gamma rays up to a dose of 1 MGy. The inter-pixel resistance values of heavily gamma irradiated AC-coupled pixel sensors suggest that high- K negative oxides as field insulators provide a good electrical isolation between the pixels.

A pixelated silicon detector, developed originally for particle physics experiments, was used for a beam profile measurement of a Co-60 irradiator in a water phantom. The beam profile was compared to a profile measured with a pinpoint ionization chamber. The differences in the pixel detector and pinpoint chamber relative profiles were within approximately 0.02, and after calculating correction factors with Monte Carlo simulations for the pixel detector, the differences were decreased to almost less than 0.005. The detector's capability to measure pulse-height was used to record an electron pulse-height spectrum in water in the Co-60 beam, and the results agreed well with simulations.

The radiation hardness of diamond at the sensor level is studied by irradiating five sensors and studying them with various particle sources, without making any modifications to the sensors in between. The electronics used in the characterization is not irradiated to ensure that any observed effect is merely due to the sensor. Three sensors have received a fluence of 10 14 protons cm −2 and two 5⋅10 15 protons cm −2 . At the lower fluence, the impact on the charge collection efficiency is very small, when the applied bias voltage is above 1 V μm −1 . For the higher fluence, the charge collection efficiency is lower than expected based on earlier studies of diamond radiation hardness on the substrate level. Furthermore, it is noticed that the irradiation has a stronger impact on the signal amplitude recorded with a fast timing than with a charge sensitive amplifier.

We have processed pad detectors on high resistivity p-type Cz-Si wafers. The resistivity of the boron-doped silicon is approximately 1.8 kOmegacm after the crystal growth. The detector process was carried as common procedure for standard n-type wafers, resulting p <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup> /p-/n <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup> detector structures. During the last process step, i.e. sintering of aluminum electrode, the p-type bulk was turned to n-type with generation of thermal donors (TD). This way, high oxygen concentration p <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup> /n-/n <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup> Cz-Si detectors were realized with low temperature process. The full depletion voltage of detectors could be tailored between wide range from 30 V up to close 1000 V by changing heat treatment at 400degC-450degC duration from 20 to 80 minutes. The space charge sign inversion (SCSI) in the TD generated devices (from p <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup> /p-/n <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup> to p <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup> /n-(inverted)/n <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+</sup> ) has been verified by the transient current technique (TCT) measurements. The detectors show very small increase of full depletion voltage after irradiations with 24 GeV/c protons.