The ATLAS community is facing the last stages prior to the production of the upgraded silicon strip Inner Tracker for the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider. An extensive Market Survey was carried ...out in order to evaluate the capability of different foundries to fabricate large area silicon strip sensors, satisfying the ATLAS specifications. The semiconductor manufacturing company, Infineon Technologies AG, was one of the two foundries, along with Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., that reached the last stage of the evaluation for the production of the new devices. The full prototype wafer layout for the participation of Infineon, called ATLAS17LS-IFX, was designed using a newly developed Python-based Automatic Layout Generation Tool, able to rapidly design sensors with different characteristics and dimensions based on a few geometrical and technological input parameters. This work presents the layout design process and the results obtained from the evaluation of the new Infineon large area sensors before and after proton and neutron irradiations, up to fluences expected in the inner layers of the future ATLAS detector.
The ATLAS experiment is going to replace the current Inner Detector with an all new inner tracker (ITk) in the ATLAS detector for HL-LHC at CERN. Silicon strip detectors cover the outer layers of the ...barrel and the endcap sections. We have designed and fabricated a prototype single-sided n+-in-p AC-coupled silicon strip sensor for the outer barrel layer with long strips (LS), ATLAS17LS. It is of the maximum allowable size to fit in a 6-in. silicon wafer, with an outer dimension of 9.80(width)×9.76(length)cm2. The sensor features two rows of LS strip segments, 4.83 cm strip length per segment, a strip pitch of 75.5 μm, and a slim edge design. We have implemented technology for high voltage operation of up to 1000V, with a good signal collection after irradiation fluence of 5.6 × 1014neq∕cm2at the end of HL-LHC operation.
We had two objectives for the ATLAS17LS fabrication: qualification of the sensor design and fabrication quality, and providing an adequate number of the sensors for prototyping the building blocks of the strip detector. The sensors were fabricated in 3 batches by HPK with standard wafers from the foundry (320 μm physical thickness). Additional 10 sensors were fabricated with a thinner active thickness of 240 μm to investigate the influence of active thickness on charge collection. Another additional 5 sensors, with special passivation to investigate the influence of passivation on humidity sensitivity. The visual inspection of fabricated sensors revealed an inadequacy that the designed metal width of 10 μm was too narrow. The initial measurements by the vendor showed that the sensors fulfilled the specifications: onset voltages of Microdischarge VMD above the operation voltage VOP (700V for the 1st and 2nd batches; 500V for the 3rd batch, which has improved the yield), leakage currents of < 0.1μA/cm2 at VOP, full depletion voltages VFD< 330V, and rates of bad strips <<1%.
The reverse current of irradiated silicon sensors leads to self heating of the sensor and degrades the signal to noise ratio of a detector. Precise knowledge of the expected reverse current during ...detector operation is crucial for planning and running experiments in High Energy Physics. The dependence of the reverse current on sensor temperature and irradiation fluence is parametrized by the effective energy and the current related damage rate, respectively. In this study 18 n-in-p mini silicon strip sensors from companies Hamamatsu Photonics and Micron Semiconductor Ltd. were deployed. Measurements of the reverse current for different bias voltages were performed at temperatures of −32°C, −27°C and −23°C. The sensors were irradiated with reactor neutrons in Ljubljana to fluences ranging from 2×1014neq∕cm2 to 2×1016neq∕cm2. The measurements were performed directly after irradiation and after 10 and 30 days of room temperature annealing. The aim of the study presented in this paper is to investigate the reverse current of silicon sensors for high fluences of up to 2×1016neq∕cm2 and compare the measurements to the parametrization models.
The upgrade of the LHC to the High Luminosity LHC will challenge the silicon strip detector performance with high fluence and long operation time. Sensors have been designed and tests on charge ...collection and electrical performance have been carried out in order to evaluate their behaviour. Besides that, it is important to understand and predict the long-term evolution of the sensor properties. In this work, detailed studies on the annealing behaviour of ATLAS12 strip sensors designed by the ITK Strip Sensor Working Group and irradiated from 5×1013neqcm−2 to 2×1015neqcm−2 are presented. Systematic charge collection and leakage current measurements have been carried out during the annealing process until break-down or the appearance of charge multiplication. The annealing was carried out, separating the sensors into two groups being either annealed at 23°C or 60°C. Sensors showing charge multiplication have been then kept at high voltage for a long time in order to monitor their stability. The difference in the annealing behaviour between the two temperatures has been analysed and compared to similar measurements on n-type sensors and with a theoretical model. From the impedance measurements for the samples irradiated to low fluences it was possible to extract the effective doping concentration. This was compared to similar measurements on n-type sensors and with a theoretical model.
We have been developing a novel radiation-tolerant n+-in-p silicon microstrip sensor for very high radiation environments, aiming for application in the high luminosity large hadron collider. The ...sensors are fabricated in 6in., p-type, float-zone wafers, where large-area strip sensor designs are laid out together with a number of miniature sensors. Radiation tolerance has been studied with ATLAS07 sensors and with independent structures. The ATLAS07 design was developed into new ATLAS12 designs. The ATLAS12A large-area sensor is made towards an axial strip sensor and the ATLAS12M towards a stereo strip sensor. New features to the ATLAS12 sensors are two dicing lines: standard edge space of 910μm and slim edge space of 450μm, a gated punch-through protection structure, and connection of orphan strips in a triangular corner of stereo strips. We report the design of the ATLAS12 layouts and initial measurements of the leakage current after dicing and the resistivity of the wafers.
In order to harvest the maximum physics potential of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), it is foreseen to significantly increase the LHC luminosity by upgrading the LHC towards the HL-LHC (High ...Luminosity LHC) 1. Especially the final upgrade (Phase-II Upgrade) foreseen beyond 2020 will mean unprecedented radiation levels. Due to the radiation damage limitations of the silicon sensors presently used, the physics experiments will require new tracking detectors for HL-LHC operation. All-silicon central trackers are being studied in ATLAS, CMS and LHCb, with extremely radiation hard silicon sensors to be used for the innermost layers. Within the CERN RD50 Collaboration, a massive R&D programme is underway across experimental boundaries to develop silicon sensors with sufficient radiation tolerance. One research topic is to gain a deeper understanding of the connection between the macroscopic sensor properties such as radiation-induced increase of leakage current, doping concentration and trapping, and the microscopic properties at the defect level. A further area of activity is the development of advanced sensor types like 3D silicon detectors designed for the extreme radiation levels expected for the vertexing layers at the HL-LHC. Results from irradiation with a mix of different particle types as expected for the sLHC are also given. Recent observations of charge multiplication effects in heavily irradiated detectors at very high bias voltages point towards a new way to achieve sizeable signals after high fluences. Results for several detector technologies and silicon materials at radiation levels corresponding to HL-LHC fluences are presented in this article, demonstrating the availabilty of silicon detectors with sufficient radiation hardness for the different radii of tracking systems in the LHC detector upgrades.
The ATLAS group has evaluated the charge collection in silicon microstrip sensors irradiated up to a fluence of 1×1016neq/cm2, exceeding the maximum of 1.6×1015neq/cm2 expected for the strip tracker ...during the high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) period including a safety factor of 2. The ATLAS12, n+-on-p type sensor, which is fabricated by Hamamatsu Photonics (HPK) on float zone (FZ) substrates, is the latest barrel sensor prototype. The charge collection from the irradiated 1×1cm2 barrel test sensors has been evaluated systematically using penetrating β-rays and an Alibava readout system. The data obtained at different measurement sites are compared with each other and with the results obtained from the previous ATLAS07 design. The results are very consistent, in particular, when the deposit charge is normalized by the sensor's active thickness derived from the edge transient current technique (edge-TCT) measurements. The measurements obtained using β-rays are verified to be consistent with the measurements using an electron beam. The edge-TCT is also effective for evaluating the field profiles across the depth. The differences between the irradiated ATLAS07 and ATLAS12 samples have been examined along with the differences among the samples irradiated with different radiation sources: neutrons, protons, and pions. The studies of the bulk properties of the devices show that the devices can yield a sufficiently large signal for the expected fluence range in the HL-LHC, thereby acting as precision tracking sensors.
This study investigates the charge collection efficiency of silicon strip detectors, produced by MICRON Semiconductor Co., Ltd. within the CERN RD50 collaboration, designed specifically to understand ...the effect of design parameters on the onset and magnitude of charge multiplication. Charge collection measurements are performed before and after irradiation with a proton fluence of 1×1015 1MeVneq/cm2 (neq/cm2) and neutron fluence ranging from 1–5×1015neq/cm2. Structures on these devices include varying diffusion times and energies for the implantation process, different sensor thicknesses, the use of intermediate biased or floating strips between the readout strips, and several different strip width and pitch geometries. The charge collection for these devices is studied as a function of the bias voltage, looking for indications of charge multiplication. Results are compared to standard float zone 300μm thick silicon strip sensors having a strip width of 25μm and pitch of 80μm.
•Specially designed silicon detectors were developed to investigate charge multiplication.•Charge collection measurements were performed before and after irradiation.•Charge multiplication only seen ≥5×1015neq/cm2.•Decreasing width/pitch increases collected charge.•Increasing implant energy/diffusion time increased collected charge.
The new silicon microstrip sensors of the End-cap part of the HL-LHC ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) present a number of challenges due to their complex design features such as the multiple different ...sensor shapes, the varying strip pitch, or the built-in stereo angle. In order to investigate these specific problems, the “petalet” prototype was defined as a small End-cap prototype. The sensors for the petalet prototype include several new layout and technological solutions to investigate the issues, they have been tested in detail by the collaboration. The sensor description and detailed test results are presented in this paper. New software tools have been developed for the automatic layout generation of the complex designs. The sensors have been fabricated, characterized and delivered to the institutes in the collaboration for their assembly on petalet prototypes. This paper describes the lessons learnt from the design and tests of the new solutions implemented on these sensors, which are being used for the full petal sensor development. This has resulted in the ITk strip community acquiring the necessary expertise to develop the full End-cap structure, the petal.
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