For the upgrade of its Inner Tracking System, the ALICE experiment plans to install a new tracker fully constructed with monolithic active pixel sensors implemented in a standard 180 nm CMOS imaging ...sensor process, with a deep pwell allowing full CMOS within the pixel. Reverse substrate bias increases the tolerance to non-ionizing energy loss (NIEL) well beyond 10131MeVneq∕cm2, but does not allow full depletion of the sensitive layer and hence full charge collection by drift, mandatory for more extreme radiation tolerance. This paper describes a process modification to fully deplete the epitaxial layer even with a small charge collection electrode. It uses a low dose blanket deep high energy n-type implant in the pixel array and does not require significant circuit or layout changes so that the same design can be fabricated both in the standard and modified process. When exposed to a 55Fe source at a reverse substrate bias of −6 V, pixels implemented in the standard and the modified process in a low and high dose variant for the deep n-type implant respectively yield a signal of about 115 mV, 110 mV and 90 mV at the output of a follower circuit. Signal rise times heavily affected by the speed of this circuit are 27.8+∕−5 ns, 23.2+∕−4.2 ns, and 22.2+∕−3.7 ns rms, respectively. In a different setup, the single pixel signal from a 90Sr source only degrades by less than 20% for the modified process after a 10151MeVneq∕cm2 irradiation, while the signal rise time only degrades by about 16+∕−2 ns to 19+∕−2.8 ns rms. From sensors implemented in the standard process no useful signal could be extracted after the same exposure. These first results indicate the process modification maintains low sensor capacitance, improves timing performance and increases NIEL tolerance by at least an order of magnitude.
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CMOS pixel sensors with a small collection electrode combine the advantages of a small sensor capacitance with the advantages of a fully monolithic design. The small sensor capacitance results in a ...large ratio of signal-to-noise and a low analogue power consumption, while the monolithic design reduces the material budget, cost and production effort. However, the low electric field in the pixel corners of such sensors results in an increased charge collection time, that makes a fully efficient operation after irradiation and a timing resolution in the order of nanoseconds challenging for pixel sizes larger than approximately forty micrometers. This paper presents the development of concepts of CMOS sensors with a small collection electrode to overcome these limitations, using three-dimensional Technology Computer Aided Design simulations. The studied design uses a 0.18 μm process implemented on a high-resistivity epitaxial layer.
The upgrade of the ATLAS 1 tracking detector for the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN requires novel radiation hard silicon sensor technologies. Significant effort has been put ...into the development of monolithic CMOS sensors but it has been a challenge to combine a low capacitance of the sensing node with full depletion of the sensitive layer. Low capacitance brings low analog power. Depletion of the sensitive layer causes the signal charge to be collected by drift sufficiently fast to separate hits from consecutive bunch crossings (25 ns at the LHC) and to avoid losing the charge by trapping. This paper focuses on the characterization of charge collection properties and detection efficiency of prototype sensors originally designed in the framework of the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS) upgrade 2. The prototypes are fabricated both in the standard TowerJazz 180nm CMOS imager process 3 and in an innovative modification of this process developed in collaboration with the foundry, aimed to fully deplete the sensitive epitaxial layer and enhance the tolerance to non-ionizing energy loss. Sensors fabricated in standard and modified process variants were characterized using radioactive sources, focused X-ray beam and test beams before and after irradiation. Contrary to sensors manufactured in the standard process, sensors from the modified process remain fully functional even after a dose of 1015neq/cm2, which is the the expected NIEL radiation fluence for the outer pixel layers in the future ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) 4.
In this article, a low-power, radiation-hard front-end circuit for monolithic pixel sensors, designed to meet the requirements of low noise and low pixel-to-pixel variability, the key features to ...achieve high detection efficiencies, is presented. The sensor features a small collection electrode to achieve a small capacitance (<5 fF) and allows full CMOS in-pixel circuitry. The circuit is implemented in the 180-nm CMOS imaging technology from the TowerJazz foundry and integrated into the MALTA2 chip, which is part of a development that targets the specifications of the outer pixel layer of the ATLAS Inner Tracker upgrade at the LHC. One of the main challenges for monolithic sensors is a radiation hardness up to 10 15 1-MeV <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\text {n}_{\text {eq}}/\text {cm}^{{2}} </tex-math></inline-formula> non-ionizing energy loss (NIEL) and 80 Mrad total ionizing dose (TID) required for this application. Tests up to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">{3} \cdot {10}^{15} </tex-math></inline-formula> 1-MeV <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\text {n}_{\text {eq}}/\text {cm}^{{2}} </tex-math></inline-formula> and 100 Mrad were performed on the MALTA2 sensor and front-end circuit, which still show good performance even after these levels of irradiation, promising for even more demanding applications such as the future experiments at the high-luminosity large hadron collider (HL-LHC).
Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (DMAPS) are monolithic pixel detectors with high-resistivity substrates designed for use in high-rate and high-radiation environments. They are produced in ...commercial CMOS processes, resulting in relatively low production costs and short turnaround times, and offer a low material budget. LF-Monopix1 and TJ-Monopix1 are large DMAPS prototypes produced in 150 nm LFoundry and 180 nm TowerJazz technology, respectively, that follow two different design concepts regarding the charge collection electrode. Prototypes of both development lines have been extensively tested and characterized over the last years. The second-generation Monopix prototypes, Monopix2, were recently produced. They were designed to address the shortcomings of their predecessors, in particular related to radiation hardness and cross talk, and further improve upon their performance. The latest measurements with LF-Monopix1 and TJ-Monopix1 concerning hit efficiency, depletion, and radiation hardness as well as the initial test results of the new Monopix2 prototypes are presented.
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Abstract The Medipix4 chip is the latest member in the Medipix/Timepix family of hybrid pixel detector chips aimed at high-rate spectroscopic X-ray imaging using high-Z materials. It can be tiled on ...all 4 sides making it ideal for constructing large-area detectors with minimal dead area. The chip is designed to read out a sensor of 320 × 320 pixels with dimensions of 75 μm× 75 μm or 160 × 160 pixels with dimensions of 150 μm× 150 μm. The readout architecture features energy binning of the single photons, which includes charge sharing correction for hits with energy spread over adjacent pixels. This paper presents the specifications, architecture, and circuit implementation of the chip, along with the first electrical measurements.
A shunt regulator was designed to meet the specifications for the serial powering of the CMOS pixel detector modules in compatibility with the next upgrade of the ATLAS detector. Serial powering ...greatly increases the system's power efficiency when compared to a parallel powering scheme and allows for significant material budget savings in the power cabling. In such a scheme, each pixel detector chip is powered by a shunt regulator that takes in a constant current and produces a regulated output voltage relative to the module's potential ground. The proposed regulator has a modular structure. Each regulator module consists of a shunt regulation submodule followed by a low-dropout voltage regulation submodule and is designed to deliver a nominal output current of 10 mA. The regulator module's schematic is presented along with a theoretical study and stability analysis. A test chip was designed in the 0.18-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS technology containing one main shunt regulator composed of 126 modules, as well as two separate regulators each composed of one single module. The characterization measurements show a correct dc startup for various load conditions, as expected by simulations. The output voltage of a single module is regulated with a precision <1%. Moreover, the regulator module works with a low voltage dropout of 200 mV for a large range of input current from 3 to 18 mA. The equivalent series resistance of a 40-module regulator is measured to be 15 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\text{m}\Omega </tex-math></inline-formula>, including the wire bonding and test bench parasitics. The test chip is successfully tested in the serial mode and in the parallel mode. In the latter mode, the current mismatch between the parallel chips is measured to be less than 3.4% for an input current of 1 A. Moreover, transient measurements performed with an active load show proper functioning with no undershoots or overshoots. Finally, the test chip was irradiated with an X-ray source up to 125 Mrad. Measurements show a stable response of the regulator with an intrinsic output voltage variation of less than 1%.
The MALTA monolithic silicon pixel sensors have been used to study dicing and thinning of monolithic silicon pixel detectors for large area and low mass modules. Dicing as close as possible to the ...active circuitry will allow to build modules with very narrow inactive regions between the sensors. Inactive edge regions of less than 5μ m to the electronic circuitry could be achieved for 100μm thick sensors. The MALTA chip (Cardella et al., 2019) also offers the possibility to transfer data and power directly from chip to chip. Tests have been carried out connecting two MALTA chips directly using ultrasonic wedge wire bonding. Results from lab tests show that the data accumulated in one chip can be transferred via the second chip to the readout system, without the need of a flexible circuit to route the signals. The concept of chip to chip data and power transfer to achieve low mass modules has also been studied on prototype wafers using Cu-stud interconnection bridges. First results are presented, outlining technical challenges and possible future steps to achieve a low mass large area monolithic pixel sensor module.
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Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (DMAPS) constitute a promising low cost alternative for the outer layers of the ATLAS experiment Inner Tracker (ITk). Realizations in modern, high resistivity ...CMOS technologies enhance their radiation tolerance by achieving substantial depletion of the sensing volume. Two DMAPS prototypes that use the same “column-drain” readout architecture and are based on different sensor implementation concepts named LF-Monopix and TJ-Monopix have been developed for the High Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC).
LF-Monopix was fabricated in the LFoundry 150 nm technology and features pixel size of 50×250μm2 and large collection electrode opted for high radiation tolerance. Detection efficiency up to 99% has been measured after irradiation to 1⋅1015neq∕cm2. TJ-Monopix is a large scale (1×2cm2) prototype featuring pixels of 36×40μm2 size. It was fabricated in a novel TowerJazz 180 nm modified process that enables full depletion of the sensitive layer, while employing a small collection electrode that is less sensitive to crosstalk. The resulting small sensor capacitance (≤3 fF) is exploited by a compact, low power front end optimized to meet the 25 ns timing requirement. Measurement results demonstrate the sensor performance in terms of Equivalent Noise Charge (ENC) ≈11e−, threshold ≈300e−, threshold dispersion ≈30e− and total power consumption lower than 120 mW/cm2.
•Depleted monolithic pixel sensors developed for the ATLAS ITk.•Different implemenation concepts featuring large and small collection electrodes.•Process modification to combine small capacitance with enhanced radiation tolerance.•Full functionality after irradiation.•High efficiency (LF-Monopix), High analog performance (TJ-Monopix).
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DMAPS Monopix developments in large and small electrode designs Bespin, C.; Barbero, M.; Barrillon, P. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
10/2020, Volume:
978
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
LF-Monopix1 and TJ-Monopix1 are depleted monolithic active pixel sensors (DMAPS) in 150nm LFoundry and 180nm TowerJazz CMOS technologies respectively. They are designed for usage in high-rate and ...high-radiation environments such as the ATLAS Inner Tracker at the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). Both chips are read out using a column-drain readout architecture. LF-Monopix1 follows a design with large charge collection electrode where readout electronics are placed inside. Generally, this offers a homogeneous electrical field in the sensor and short drift distances. TJ-Monopix1 employs a small charge collection electrode with readout electronics separated from the electrode and an additional n-type implant to achieve full depletion of the sensitive volume. This approach offers a low sensor capacitance and therefore low noise and is typically implemented with small pixel size. Both detectors have been characterized before and after irradiation using lab tests and particle beams.
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