MALTA monolithic pixel sensors in TowerJazz 180 nm technology

Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors are of highest interest at the HL-LHC and beyond for the replacement of the Pixel trackers in the outermost layers of experiments where the requirement on total area and cost effectiveness is much bigger. They aim to provide high granularity and low material budget over large surfaces with ease of integration. Our research focuses on MALTA, a radiation hard DMAPS with small collection electrode designed in TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS imaging technology and asynchronous read-out. Latest prototypes are radiation hard up to 2 × 1015 1 MeV neq/cm2 with a time resolution better than 2 ns

Timing performance of radiation hard MALTA monolithic Pixel sensors

The MALTA family of Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (DMAPS) produced in Tower 180 nm CMOS technology targets radiation hard applications for the HL-LHC and beyond. Several process modifications and front-end improvements have resulted in radiation hardness up to $2 \times 10^{15}~1~\text{MeV}~\text{n}_{eq}/\text{cm}^2$ and time resolution below 2 ns, with uniform charge collection efficiency across the Pixel of size $36.4 \times 36.4~\mu\text{m}^2$ with a $3~\mu\text{m}^2$ electrode size. The MALTA2 demonstrator produced in 2021 on high-resistivity epitaxial silicon and on Czochralski substrates implements a new cascoded front-end that reduces the RTS noise and has a higher gain. This contribution shows results from MALTA2 on timing resolution at the nanosecond level from the CERN SPS test-beam campaign of 2021.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to Journal of Instrumentation (JINST). Proceedings of the 23rd International Workshop on Radiation Imaging Detectors IWORID 202

Depletion depth studies with the MALTA2 sensor, a depleted monolithic active pixel sensor

MALTA2 is a depleted monolithic active pixel sensor (DMAPS) developed in the Tower 180 nm CMOS imaging process. Monolithic CMOS sensors offer advantages over current hybrid imaging sensors both in terms of increased tracking performance due to lower material budget but also in terms of ease of integration and construction costs due to the monolithic design. Current research and development efforts are aimed towards radiation-hard designs up to 100 Mrad in Total Ionizing Dose and 3 × 1015 1 MeV neq / cm2 in Non-Ionizing Energy Loss. One important property of a sensor’s radiation hardness is the depletion depth at which efficient charge collection is achieved via drift movement. Grazing angle test-beam data was taken during the 2023 SPS CERN test beam with the MALTA telescope and Edge Transient Current Technique studies were performed at DESY in order to develop a quantitative study of the depletion depth for un-irradiated, epitaxial MALTA2 samples. The study is planned to be extended for irradiated and Czochralski MALTA2 samples

Future developments of radiation tolerant sensors based on the MALTA architecture

The planned MALTA3 DMAPS designed in the standard TowerJazz 180 nm imaging process will implement the numerous process modifications, as well as front-end changes in order to boost the charge collection efficiency after the targeted fluence of 1 × 1015 1 MeV neq/cm2. The effectiveness of these changes have been demonstrated with recent measurements of the full size MALTA2 chip. With the original MALTA concept being fully asynchronous, a small-scale MiniMALTA demonstrator chip has been developed with the intention of bridging the gap between the asynchronous pixel matrix, and the synchronous DAQ. This readout architecture will serve as a baseline for MALTA3, with focus on improved timing performance. The synchronization memory has been upgraded to allow clock speeds of up to 1.28 GHz, with the goal of achieving a sub-nanosecond on-chip timing resolution. The subsequent digital readout chain has been modified and will be discussed in the context of the overall sensor architecture

Development of a large-area, light-weight module using the MALTA monolithic pixel detector

The MALTA pixel chip is a 2 cm x 2 cm large monolithic pixel detector developed in the Tower 180 nm imaging process. The chip contains four CMOS transceiver blocks at its sides which allow chip-to-chip data transfer. The power pads are located mainly at the side edges on the chip which allows for chip-to-chip power transmission. The MALTA chip has been used to study module assembly using different interconnection techniques to transmit data and power from chip to chip and to minimize the overall material budget. Several 2-chip and 4-chip modules have been assembled using standard wire bonding, ACF (Anisotropic Conductive Films) and laser reflow interconnection techniques. These proceedings will summarize the experience with the different interconnection techniques and performance tests of MALTA modules with 2 and 4 chips tested in a cosmic muon telescope. They will also show first results on the effect of serial power tests on chip performance as well as the impact of the different interconnection techniques and the results of mechanical tests. Finally, a conceptual study for a flex based ultra-light weight monolithic pixel module based on the MALTA chip with minimum interconnections is presented

Quad-Module characterization with the MALTA monolithic pixel chip

The MALTA silicon pixel detector combines a depleted monolithic active pixel sensor (DMAPS) with a fully asynchronous front-end and readout. It features a high granularity pixel matrix with a 36.4 μ m symmetric pixel pitch, low power consumption of < 1 μ W/pixel and low material budget with detector thicknesses as little as 50 μ m . It achieves a radiation hardness to 100MRad TID and more than 1×10E15 1 MeV n eq/cm 2 with a time resolution of < 2 ns (Pernegger et al., 2023). In order to cover large sensitive areas efficiently with a minimum of power and data connections the development of modules, comprising of up to 4 MALTA detectors, is studied. This contribution presents the beam test performance of parallel and serial powered MALTA 4-chip modules in an effort to characterize the sensor’s chip-to-chip data and power transmission and prepare the production of a first prototype of an ultra-light weight 4-chip module on a flexible circuit with next generation MALTA2 sensors

Quad-Module characterization with the MALTA monolithic pixel chip

The MALTA silicon pixel detector combines a depleted monolithic active pixel sensor (DMAPS) with a fully asynchronous front-end and readout. It features a high granularity pixel matrix with a 36.4 μ m symmetric pixel pitch, low power consumption of < 1 μ W/pixel and low material budget with detector thicknesses as little as 50 μ m . It achieves a radiation hardness to 100MRad TID and more than 1×10E15 1 MeV n eq/cm 2 with a time resolution of < 2 ns (Pernegger et al., 2023). In order to cover large sensitive areas efficiently with a minimum of power and data connections the development of modules, comprising of up to 4 MALTA detectors, is studied. This contribution presents the beam test performance of parallel and serial powered MALTA 4-chip modules in an effort to characterize the sensor’s chip-to-chip data and power transmission and prepare the production of a first prototype of an ultra-light weight 4-chip module on a flexible circuit with next generation MALTA2 sensors

Timing performance of radiation hard MALTA monolithic Pixel sensors

The MALTA family of Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (DMAPS) produced in Tower 180 nm CMOS technology targets radiation hard applications for the HL-LHC and beyond. Several process modifications and front-end improvements have resulted in radiation hardness up to $2 \times 10^{15}~1~\text{MeV}~\text{n}_{eq}/\text{cm}^2$ and time resolution below 2 ns, with uniform charge collection efficiency across the Pixel of size $36.4 \times 36.4~\mu\text{m}^2$ with a $3~\mu\text{m}^2$ electrode size. The MALTA2 demonstrator produced in 2021 on high-resistivity epitaxial silicon and on Czochralski substrates implements a new cascoded front-end that reduces the RTS noise and has a higher gain. This contribution shows results from MALTA2 on timing resolution at the nanosecond level from the CERN SPS test-beam campaign of 2021

Radiation hardness of MALTA2, a monolithic active pixel sensor for tracking applications

MALTA is a depleted monolithic active pixel sensor (DMAPS) developed in the Tower Semiconductor 180 nm CMOS imaging process. Monolithic CMOS sensors offer advantages over current hybrid imaging sensors both in terms of increased tracking performance due to lower material budget but also in terms of ease of integration and construction costs due to the integration of read-out and active sensor into one ASIC. Current research and development efforts are aimed towards radiation hard designs up to 100 Mrad in Total Ionizing Dose (TID) and 1 × 10 15 1 MeV n eq /cm 2 in Non-Ionizing Energy Loss (NIEL). The design of the MALTA sensors was specifically chosen to achieve radiation hardness up to these requirements and satisfy current and future collider constraints. The current MALTA pixel architecture employs small electrodes which provide less noise, higher signal voltage and a better power to performance ratio. To counteract the loss of efficiency in pixel corners, modifications to the Tower process have been implemented. The MALTA sensors have been tested during the 2021 and 2022 SPS CERN Test Beam in the MALTA telescope. The telescope ran for the whole duration of the beam time and took data in order to characterize the novel MALTA2 variant and the performance of irradiated samples in terms of efficiency and cluster size. These campaigns show that MALTA is an interesting prospect for HL-LHC and beyond collider experiments, providing both very good tracking capabilities and radiation hardness in harsh radiation environments

Development of a large-area, light-weight module using the MALTA monolithic pixel detector

The MALTA pixel chip is a 2 cm × 2 cm large monolithic pixel detector developed in the Tower 180 nm imaging process. The chip contains four CMOS transceiver blocks at its sides which allow chip-to-chip data transfer. The power pads are located mainly at the side edges on the chip which allows for chip-to-chip power transmission. The MALTA chip has been used to study module assembly using different interconnection techniques to transmit data and power from chip to chip and to minimize the overall material budget. Several 2-chip and 4-chip modules have been assembled using standard wire bonding, ACF (Anisotropic Conductive Films) and laser reflow interconnection techniques. These proceedings will summarize the experience with the different interconnection techniques and performance tests of MALTA modules with 2 and 4 chips tested in a cosmic muon telescope. They will also show first results on the effect of serial power tests on chip performance as well as the impact of the different interconnection techniques and the results of mechanical tests. Finally, a conceptual study for a flex based ultra-light weight monolithic pixel module based on the MALTA chip with minimum interconnections is presented