2D Detectors for Particle Physics and for Imaging Applications

The demands on detectors for particle detection as well as for medical and astronomical X-ray imaging are continuously pushing the development of novel pixel detectors. The state of the art in pixel detector technology to date are hybrid pixel detectors in which sensor and read-out integrated circuits are processed on different substrates and connected via high density interconnect structures. While these detectors are technologically mastered such that large scale particle detectors can be and are being built, the demands for improved performance for the next generation particle detectors ask for the development of monolithic or semi-monolithic approaches. Given the fact that the demands for medical imaging are different in some key aspects, developments for these applications, which started as particle physics spin-off, are becomming rather independent. New approaches are leading to novel signal processing concepts and interconnect technologies to satisfy the need for very high dynamic range and large area detectors. The present state in hybrid and (semi-)monolithic pixel detector development and their different approaches for particle physics and imaging application is reviewed

Trends in Pixel Detectors: Tracking and Imaging

For large scale applications, hybrid pixel detectors, in which sensor and read-out IC are separate entities, constitute the state of the art in pixel detector technology to date. They have been developed and start to be used as tracking detectors and also imaging devices in radiography, autoradiography, protein crystallography and in X-ray astronomy. A number of trends and possibilities for future applications in these fields with improved performance, less material, high read-out speed, large radiation tolerance, and potential off-the-shelf availability have appeared and are momentarily matured. Among them are monolithic or semi-monolithic approaches which do not require complicated hybridization but come as single sensor/IC entities. Most of these are presently still in the development phase waiting to be used as detectors in experiments. The present state in pixel detector development including hybrid and (semi-)monolithic pixel techniques and their suitability for particle detection and for imaging, is reviewed.Comment: 10 pages, 15 figures, Invited Review given at IEEE2003, Portland, Oct, 200

Pixel Detectors for Tracking and their Spin-off in Imaging Applications

To detect tracks of charged particles close to the interaction point in high energy physics experiments of the next generation colliders, hybrid pixel detectors, in which sensor and read-out IC are separate entities, constitute the present state of the art in detector technology. Three of the LHC detectors as well as the BTeV detector at the Tevatron will use vertex detectors based on this technology. A development period of almost 10 years has resulted in pixel detector modules which can stand the extreme rate and timing requirements as well as the very harsh radiation environment at the LHC for its full life time and without severe compromises in performance. From these developments a number of different applications have spun off, most notably for biomedical imaging. Beyond hybrid pixels, a number of trends and possibilities with yet improved performance in some aspects have appeared and presently developed to greater maturity. Among them are monolithic or semi-monolithic pixel detectors which do not require complicated hybridization but come as single sensor/IC entities. The present state in hybrid pixel detector development for the LHC experiments as well as for some imaging applications is reviewed and new trends towards monolithic or semi-monolithic pixel devices are summarized.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figure

Pixel Detectors

Pixel detectors for precise particle tracking in high energy physics have been developed to a level of maturity during the past decade. Three of the LHC detectors will use vertex detectors close to the interaction point based on the hybrid pixel technology which can be considered the state of the art in this field of instrumentation. A development period of almost 10 years has resulted in pixel detector modules which can stand the extreme rate and timing requirements as well as the very harsh radiation environment at the LHC without severe compromises in performance. From these developments a number of different applications have spun off, most notably for biomedical imaging. Beyond hybrid pixels, a number of monolithic or semi-monolithic developments, which do not require complicated hybridization but come as single sensor/IC entities, have appeared and are currently developed to greater maturity. Most advanced in terms of maturity are so called CMOS active pixels and DEPFET pixels. The present state in the construction of the hybrid pixel detectors for the LHC experiments together with some hybrid pixel detector spin-off is reviewed. In addition, new developments in monolithic or semi-monolithic pixel devices are summarized.Comment: 14 pages, 38 drawings/photographs in 21 figure

Analog CMOS Readout Channel for Time and Amplitude Measurements With Radiation Sensitivity Analysis for Gain-Boosting Amplifiers

The front-end readout channel consists of a charge sensitive amplifier (CSA) and two different unipolar-shaping circuits to generate pulses suitable for time and energy measurement. The signal processing chain of the single channel is built of two different parallel processing paths: a fast path with a peaking time of 30 ns to obtain the time of arrival for each particle impinging the detector; and a slow path with a peaking time of 400 ns dedicated for low noise amplitude measurements, which is formed by a pole-zero cancellation circuit and a 4th order complex shaper based on a bridged-T architecture. The tunability of the system is accomplished by the discharge time constant of the CSA in order to accommodate various event rates. The readout system has been implemented in a 180 nm CMOS technology with the size of 525 μm x 290 μm . The building blocks use compact gain-boosting techniques based on quasi-floating gate (QFG) transistors achieving accurate energy measurement with good resolution. The high impedance nodes of QFG transistors require a detailed study of sensitivity to single-effect transients (SET). After carrying out this study, this paper proposes a method to select the value of the QFG capacitors, minimizing the area occupancy while maintaining robustness to radiation. The nonlinearity of the CSA-slow-shaper has been found to be less than 1% over a 10–70 fC input charge. The power dissipation of the readout channel is 4.1 mW with a supply voltage of 1.8 V.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades PGC2018-095640-B-I00Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades P18-FR-3852 y P18-FR-431

The ALICE Inner Tracking System

The design characteristics of the ALICE inner tracking system are presented together with the performances measured in beam tests and expected from Monte Carlo simulations

FAST: a scintillating tracker for antiproton cross section measurements

A scintillating fiber tracker (FAST, Fiber Antiproton Scintillating Tracker) has been developed in the framework of the ASACUSA collaboration to perform a low energy antiproton cross section measurement at the Antiproton Decelerator at CERN; this PhD Thesis will discuss the design, the development, the commissioning of the FAST detector and the preliminary results of the data taking held in July 2007. Chap. 1 is a review of the topical results in Antiproton Physics during the last 50 years. Chap. 2 focuses on detectors; since the detector chosen for our experiment is a scintillating fiber tracker, the most advanced fiber detection systems are reviewed. Chap. 3 describes the detector, a 2500 channel scintillating fiber tracker readout by 42 multianode photomultipliers a custom electronics. The design has been validated with montecarlo simulations and with dedicated beam tests on prototypes. The tracker has been tested with cosmic rays to characterize the efficiency, the time resolution and the spatial resolution. Chap. 4 describes the commissioning phase and reports the results of the data collected on the Antiproton Decelerator. In the last Chap. 3 applications of the system developed for FAST in different physics fields are shown. The electronics has been used in Medical Physics, allowing a ToF neutron detection in a radiotherapic environment, in imaging applications, connected to a GEM pad detector and as a beam profile monitor with high rate capabilities at the CERN SPS H8 beam line