A review of advances in pixel detectors for experiments with high rate and radiation

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments ATLAS and CMS have established hybrid pixel detectors as the instrument of choice for particle tracking and vertexing in high rate and radiation environments, as they operate close to the LHC interaction points. With the High Luminosity-LHC upgrade now in sight, for which the tracking detectors will be completely replaced, new generations of pixel detectors are being devised. They have to address enormous challenges in terms of data throughput and radiation levels, ionizing and non-ionizing, that harm the sensing and readout parts of pixel detectors alike. Advances in microelectronics and microprocessing technologies now enable large scale detector designs with unprecedented performance in measurement precision (space and time), radiation hard sensors and readout chips, hybridization techniques, lightweight supports, and fully monolithic approaches to meet these challenges. This paper reviews the world-wide effort on these developments.Comment: 84 pages with 46 figures. Review article.For submission to Rep. Prog. Phy

R&D Paths of Pixel Detectors for Vertex Tracking and Radiation Imaging

This report reviews current trends in the R&D of semiconductor pixellated sensors for vertex tracking and radiation imaging. It identifies requirements of future HEP experiments at colliders, needed technological breakthroughs and highlights the relation to radiation detection and imaging applications in other fields of science.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, submitted to the European Strategy Preparatory Grou

High Temperature Electronics Design for Aero Engine Controls and Health Monitoring

There is a growing desire to install electronic power and control systems in high temperature harsh environments to improve the accuracy of critical measurements, reduce the amount of cabling and to eliminate cooling systems. Typical target applications include electronics for energy exploration, power generation and control systems. Technical topics presented in this book include:• High temperature electronics market• High temperature devices, materials and assembly processes• Design, manufacture and testing of multi-sensor data acquisition system for aero-engine control• Future applications for high temperature electronicsHigh Temperature Electronics Design for Aero Engine Controls and Health Monitoring contains details of state of the art design and manufacture of electronics targeted towards a high temperature aero-engine application. High Temperature Electronics Design for Aero Engine Controls and Health Monitoring is ideal for design, manufacturing and test personnel in the aerospace and other harsh environment industries as well as academic staff and master/research students in electronics engineering, materials science and aerospace engineering

A self-powered single-chip wireless sensor platform

Internet of things” require a large array of low-cost sensor nodes, wireless connectivity, low power operation and system intelligence. On the other hand, wireless biomedical implants demand additional specifications including small form factor, a choice of wireless operating frequencies within the window for minimum tissue loss and bio-compatibility This thesis describes a low power and low-cost internet of things system suitable for implant applications that is implemented in its entirety on a single standard CMOS chip with an area smaller than 0.5 mm2. The chip includes integrated sensors, ultra-low-power transceivers, and additional interface and digital control electronics while it does not require a battery or complex packaging schemes. It is powered through electromagnetic (EM) radiation using its on-chip miniature antenna that also assists with transmit and receive functions. The chip can operate at a short distance (a few centimeters) from an EM source that also serves as its wireless link. Design methodology, system simulation and optimization and early measurement results are presented

A High-Temperature, High-Voltage SOI Gate Driver Integrated Circuit with High Drive Current for Silicon Carbide Power Switches

High-temperature integrated circuit (IC) design is one of the new frontiers in microelectronics that can significantly improve the performance of the electrical systems in extreme environment applications, including automotive, aerospace, well-logging, geothermal, and nuclear. Power modules (DC-DC converters, inverters, etc.) are key components in these electrical systems. Power-to-volume and power-to-weight ratios of these modules can be significantly improved by employing silicon carbide (SiC) based power switches which are capable of operating at much higher temperature than silicon (Si) and gallium arsenide (GaAs) based conventional devices. For successful realization of such high-temperature power electronic circuits, associated control electronics also need to perform at high temperature. In any power converter, gate driver circuit performs as the interface between a low-power microcontroller and the semiconductor power switches. This dissertation presents design, implementation, and measurement results of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based high-temperature (\u3e200 _C) and high-voltage (\u3e30 V) universal gate driver integrated circuit with high drive current (\u3e3 A) for SiC power switches. This mixed signal IC has primarily been designed for automotive applications where the under-hood temperature can reach 200 _C. Prototype driver circuits have been designed and implemented in a Bipolar-CMOS- DMOS (BCD) on SOI process and have been successfully tested up to 200 _C ambient temperature driving SiC switches (MOSFET and JFET) without any heat sink and thermal management. This circuit can generate 30V peak-to-peak gate drive signal and can source and sink 3A peak drive current. Temperature compensating and temperature independent design techniques are employed to design the critical functional units like dead-time controller and level shifters in the driver circuit. Chip-level layout techniques are employed to enhance the reliability of the circuit at high temperature. High-temperature test boards have been developed to test the prototype ICs. An ultra low power on-chip temperature sensor circuit has also been designed and integrated into the gate-driver die to safeguard the driver circuit against excessive die temperature (_ 220 _C). This new temperature monitoring approach utilizes a reverse biased p-n junction diode as the temperature sensing element. Power consumption of this sensor circuit is less than 10 uW at 200 _C

High Temperature Electronics Design for Aero Engine Controls and Health Monitoring

There is a growing desire to install electronic power and control systems in high temperature harsh environments to improve the accuracy of critical measurements, reduce the amount of cabling and to eliminate cooling systems. Typical target applications include electronics for energy exploration, power generation and control systems. Technical topics presented in this book include:• High temperature electronics market• High temperature devices, materials and assembly processes• Design, manufacture and testing of multi-sensor data acquisition system for aero-engine control• Future applications for high temperature electronicsHigh Temperature Electronics Design for Aero Engine Controls and Health Monitoring contains details of state of the art design and manufacture of electronics targeted towards a high temperature aero-engine application. High Temperature Electronics Design for Aero Engine Controls and Health Monitoring is ideal for design, manufacturing and test personnel in the aerospace and other harsh environment industries as well as academic staff and master/research students in electronics engineering, materials science and aerospace engineering

Implementation and Characterisation of Monolithic CMOS Pixel Sensors for the CLIC Vertex and Tracking Detectors

Different CMOS technologies are being considered for the vertex and tracking layers of the detector at the proposed high-energy e$^{+}$e$^{−}$ Compact Linear Collider (CLIC). CMOS processes have been proven to be suitable for building high granularity, large area detector systems with low material budget and low power consumption. An effort is put on implementing detectors capable of performing precise timing measurements. Two Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) for particle detection have been developed in the framework of this thesis, following the specifications of the CLIC vertex and tracking detectors. The process choice was based on a study of the features of each of the different available technologies and an evaluation of their suitability for each application. The CLICpix Capacitively Coupled Pixel Detector (C3PD) is a pixelated detector chip designed to be used in capacitively coupled assemblies with the CLICpix2 readout chip, in the framework of the vertex detector at CLIC. The chip comprises a matrix of 128×128 square pixels with 25 µm pitch. A commercial 180 nm High-Voltage (HV) CMOS process was used for the C3PD design. The charge is collected with a large deep N-well, while each pixel includes a preamplifier placed on top of the collecting electrode. The C3PD chip was produced on wafers with different values for the substrate resistivity (∼ 20, 80, 200 and 1000 Ωcm) and has been extensively tested through laboratory measurements and beam tests. The design details and characterisation results of the C3PD chip will be presented. The CLIC Tracker Detector (CLICTD) is a novel monolithic detector chip developed in the context of the silicon tracker at CLIC. The CLICTD chip combines high density, mixed mode circuits on the same substrate, while it performs a fast time-tagging measurement with 10 ns time bins. The chip is produced in a 180 nm CMOS imaging process with a High-Resistivity (HR) epitaxial layer. A matrix of 16×128 detecting cells, each measuring 300 × 30 µm$^{2}$ , is included. A small N-well is used to collect the charge generated in the sensor volume, while an additional deep N-type implant is used to fully deplete the epitaxial layer. Using a process split, additional wafers are produced with a segmented deep N-type implant, a modification that has been simulated to result in a faster charge collection time. Each detecting cell is segmented into eight front-ends to ensure prompt charge collection in the sensor diodes. A simultaneous 8-bit timing and 5-bit energy measurement is performed in each detecting cell. A detailed description of the CLICTD design will be given, followed by the first measurement results

A low-power, low-cost infra-red emitter in CMOS technology

In this paper, 1 we present the design and characterization of a low-power low-cost infra-red emitter based on a tungsten micro-hotplate fabricated in a commercial 1-μm SOI-CMOS technology. The device has a 250-μm diameter resistive heater inside a 600-μm diameter thin dielectric membrane. We first present electro-thermal and optical device characterization, long term stability measurements, and then demonstrate its application as a gas sensor for a domestic boiler. The emitter has a dc power consumption of only 70 mW, a total emission of 0.8 mW across the 2.5–15-μm wavelength range, a 50% frequency modulation depth of 70 Hz, and excellent uniformity from device-to-device. We also compare two larger emitters (heater size of 600 and 1800 μm) made in the same technology that have a much higher infra-red emission, but at the detriment of higher power consumption. Finally, we demonstrate that carbon nanotubes can be used to significantly enhance the thermo-optical transduction efficiency of the emitter

Temperature sensors in SOI CMOS for high temperature applications

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH