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

Material Strength in Polymer Shape Deposition Manufacturing

Shape Deposition Manufacturing (SDM) is a layered manufacturing process involving an iterative combination of material addition and material removal. Polymer SDM processes have used castable thermoset resins to build a variety of parts. The strength of such parts is determined by the bulk material properties of the part materials and by their interlayer adhesion. This paper describes tensile testing of three thermoset resins used for SDM - two polyurethane resins and one epoxy resin. Both monolithic specimens and specimens with two interlayer !nterfaces were tested. Interlayer tensile strengths were found to vary greatly among the three matenals, from 5-40 MPa.Mechanical Engineerin

Comparison of dynamic fatigue behavior between SiC whisker-reinforced composite and monolithic silicon nitrides

The dynamic fatigue behavior of 30 vol percent silicon nitride whisker-reinforced composite and monolithic silicon nitrides were determined as a function of temperature from 1100 to 1300 C in ambient air. The fatigue susceptibility parameter, n, decreased from 88.1 to 20.1 for the composite material, and from 50.8 to 40.4 for the monolithic, with increasing temperature from 1100 to 1300 C. A transition in the dynamic fatigue curve occurred for the composite material at a low stressing rate of 2 MPa/min at 1300 C, resulting in a very low value of n equals 5.8. Fractographic analysis showed that glassy phases in the slow crack growth region were more pronounced in the composite compared to the monolithic material, implying that SiC whisker addition promotes the formation of glass rich phases at the grain boundaries, thereby enhancing fatigue. These results indicate that SiC whisker addition to Si3 N4 matrix substantially deteriorates fatigue resistance inherent to the matrix base material for this selected material system

Characterisation of AMS H35 HV-CMOS monolithic active pixel sensor prototypes for HEP applications

Monolithic active pixel sensors produced in High Voltage CMOS (HV-CMOS) technology are being considered for High Energy Physics applications due to the ease of production and the reduced costs. Such technology is especially appealing when large areas to be covered and material budget are concerned. This is the case of the outermost pixel layers of the future ATLAS tracking detector for the HL-LHC. For experiments at hadron colliders, radiation hardness is a key requirement which is not fulfilled by standard CMOS sensor designs that collect charge by diffusion. This issue has been addressed by depleted active pixel sensors in which electronics are embedded into a large deep implantation ensuring uniform charge collection by drift. Very first small prototypes of hybrid depleted active pixel sensors have already shown a radiation hardness compatible with the ATLAS requirements. Nevertheless, to compete with the present hybrid solutions a further reduction in costs achievable by a fully monolithic design is desirable. The H35DEMO is a large electrode full reticle demonstrator chip produced in AMS 350 nm HV-CMOS technology by the collaboration of Karlsruher Institut f\"ur Technologie (KIT), Institut de F\'isica d'Altes Energies (IFAE), University of Liverpool and University of Geneva. It includes two large monolithic pixel matrices which can be operated standalone. One of these two matrices has been characterised at beam test before and after irradiation with protons and neutrons. Results demonstrated the feasibility of producing radiation hard large area fully monolithic pixel sensors in HV-CMOS technology. H35DEMO chips with a substrate resistivity of 200$\Omega$ cm irradiated with neutrons showed a radiation hardness up to a fluence of $10^{15}$n$_{eq}$cm$^{-2}$ with a hit efficiency of about 99% and a noise occupancy lower than $10^{-6}$ hits in a LHC bunch crossing of 25ns at 150V

Cascade Solar Cell Workshop report

Issues related to the feasibility, research and development, and demonstration of a 30% AMO cascade solar cell discussed include the material selection, growth and fabrication techniques, and device development strategy for a monolithic (two terminal) cascade cell, a hybrid (four terminal) cascade cell, and a spectral splitting device (three cells). Workshop recommendations include: (1) initiate a long range research program to develop a three junction, monolithic, cascade cell using either AlGaAsSb-GaAsSb or AlGaInAs-GaInAs material system; (2) emphasize OM-CVD epitaxial growth technique, perhaps combined with other technologies in the near term to obtain tunnel junctions; (3) develop a two junction device first; (4) initiate a cascade solar cell modeling program to study and compare performance of two and four terminal cascade devices exposed to electron and proton irradiation; and (5) encourage and be open to new ideas for developing four terminal, hybrid, cascade cells exploiting novel component cell interconnect technologies

Nanolasers grown on silicon

Integration of optical interconnects with silicon-based electronics can address the growing limitations facing chip-scale data transport as microprocessors become progressively faster. However, material lattice mismatch and incompatible growth temperatures have fundamentally limited monolithic integration of lasers onto silicon substrates until now. Here, we use a novel growth scheme to overcome this roadblock and directly grow on-chip InGaAs nanopillar lasers, demonstrating the potency of bottom-up nano-optoelectronic integration. Unique helically-propagating cavity modes are employed to strongly confine light within subwavelength nanopillars despite low refractive index contrast between InGaAs and silicon. These modes thereby provide an avenue for engineering on-chip nanophotonic devices such as lasers. Nanopillar lasers are as-grown on silicon, offer tiny footprints and scalability, and are thereby particularly suited to high-density optoelectronics. They may ultimately form the basis of the missing monolithic light sources needed to bridge the existing gap between photonic and electronic circuits.Comment: submitted to Nature Photonic

Gallium Arsenide Monolithic Optoelectronic Circuits

The optical properties of GaAs make it a very useful material for the fabrication of optical emitters and detectors. GaAs also possesses electronic properties which allow the fabrication of high speed electronic devices which are superior to conventional silicon devices. Monolithic optoelectronic circuits are formed by the integration of optical and electronic devices on a single GaAs substrate. Integration of many devices is most easily accomplished on a semi-insulating (SI) sub-strate. Several laser structures have been fabricated on SI GaAs substrates. Some of these lasers have been integrated with Gunn diodes and with metal semiconductor field effect transistors (MESFETs). An integrated optical repeater has been demonstrated in which MESFETs are used for optical detection and electronic amplification, and a laser is used to regenerate the optical signal. Monolithic optoelectronic circuits have also been constructed on conducting substrates. A heterojunction bipolar transistor driver has been integrated with a laser on an n-type GaAs substrate

Upgrade of the ALICE Inner Tracking System

During the Long Shutdown 2 of the LHC in 2018/2019, the ALICE experiment plans the installation of a novel Inner Tracking System. It will replace the current six layer detector system with a seven layer detector using Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors. The upgraded Inner Tracking System will have significantly improved tracking and vertexing capabilities, as well as readout rate to cope with the expected increased Pb-Pb luminosity of the LHC. The choice of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors has been driven by the specific requirements of ALICE as a heavy ion experiment dealing with rare processes at low transverse momenta. This leads to stringent requirements on the material budget of 0.3$$ per layer for the three innermost layers. Furthermore, the detector will see large hit densities of $\sim 19 \mathrm{cm}^{-2}/\mathrm{event}$ on average for minimum-bias events in the inner most layer and has to stand moderate radiation loads of 700 kRad TID and $1\times 10^{13}$ 1 MeV n$_\mathrm{eq}/\mathrm{cm}^{2}$ NIEL at maximum. The Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor detectors are manufactured using the TowerJazz 0.18 $\mu$m CMOS Imaging Sensor process on wafers with a high-resistivity epitaxial layer. This contribution summarises the recent R&D activities and focuses on results on the large-scale pixel sensor prototypes.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, proceedings of VERTEX 2014, 15-19 September 201