Characterisation of a Thin Fully Depleted SOI Pixel Sensor with High Momentum Charged Particles

This paper presents the results of the characterisation of a thin, fully depleted pixel sensor manufactured in SOI technology on high-resistivity substrate with high momentum charged particles. The sensor is thinned to 70 $\mu$m and a thin phosphor layer contact is implanted on the back-plane. Its response is compared to that of thick sensors of same design in terms of signal and noise, detection efficiency and single point resolution based on data collected with 300 GeV pions at the CERN SPS. We observe that the charge collected and the signal-to-noise ratio scale according to the estimated thickness of the sensitive volume and the efficiency and single point resolution of the thinned chip are comparable to those measured for the thick sensors.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instr. and Meth., section

Characterisation of a Pixel Sensor in 0.20 micron SOI Technology for Charged Particle Tracking

This paper presents the results of the characterisation of a pixel sensor manufactured in OKI 0.2 micron SOI technology integrated on a high-resistivity substrate, and featuring several pixel cell layouts for charge collection optimisation. The sensor is tested with short IR laser pulses, X-rays and 200 GeV pions. We report results on charge collection, particle detection efficiency and single point resolution.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods

Tracking and Vertexing with a Thin CMOS Pixel Beam Telescope

We present results of a study of charged particle track and vertex reconstruction with a beam telescope made of four layers of 50 micron-thin CMOS monolithic pixel sensors using the 120 GeV protons at the FNAL Meson Test Beam Facility. We compare our results to the performance requirements of a future e+e- linear collider in terms of particle track extrapolation and vertex reconstruction accuracies.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods

Studies of Vertex Tracking with SOI Pixel Sensors for Future Lepton Colliders

This paper presents a study of vertex tracking with a beam hodoscope consisting of three layers of monolithic pixel sensors in SOI technology on high-resistivity substrate. We study the track extrapolation accuracy, two-track separation and vertex reconstruction accuracy in pion-Cu interactions with 150 and 300 GeV/c pions at the CERN SPS. Results are discussed in the context of vertex tracking at future lepton colliders.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods

A novel sensor for ion electron emission microscopy

Abstract An ion electron emission microscope (IEEM) to be installed at the SIRAD heavy ion irradiation facility at the 15 MV tandem accelerator of the INFN Legnaro laboratory (Italy) will be used to characterize the sensitivity of electronic devices to single event effects (SEE) to ion impacts with micrometric lateral resolutions. The secondary electrons emitted by ion impacts from the target surface are transported and focused by an electron microscope onto a micro-channel plate (MCP) detector coupled to a fast phosphor. The luminous signal is then detected by a position sensitive photon detector located outside the vacuum chamber. The high repetition rates and high spatial resolution, required to temporally distinguish ion impacts for SEE studies and avoid degrading of the initial resolution of the IEEM and MCP are met by the system, presented here for the first time, based on two orthogonal linear CCDs

ILC Vertex Tracker R&D

This document summarizes past achievements, current activities and future goals of the R&D program aimed at the design, prototyping and characterization of a full detector module, equipped with monolithic pixel sensors, matching the requirements for the Vertex Tracker at the ILC. We provide a plan of activities to obtain a demonstrator multi-layered vertex tracker equipped with sensors matching the ILC requirements and realistic lightweight ladders in FY11, under the assumption that ILC detector proto-collaborations will be choosing technologies and designs for the Vertex Tracker by that time. The R&D program discussed here started at LBNL in 2004, supported by a Laboratory Directed R&D (LDRD) grant and by funding allocated from the core budget of the LBNL Physics Division and from the Department of Physics at UC Berkeley. Subsequently additional funding has been awarded under the NSF-DOE LCRD program and also personnel have become available through collaborative research with other groups. The aim of the R&D program carried out by our collaboration is to provide a well-integrated, inclusive research effort starting from physics requirements for the ILC Vertex Tracker and addressing Si sensor design and characterization, engineered ladder design, module system issues, tracking and vertex performances and beam test validation. The broad scope of this program is made possible by important synergies with existing know-how and concurrent programs both at LBNL and at the other collaborating institutions. In particular, significant overlaps with LHC detector design, SLHC R&D as well as prototyping for the STAR upgrade have been exploited to optimize the cost per deliverable of our program. This activity is carried out as a collaborative effort together with Accelerator and Fusion Research, the Engineering and the Nuclear Science Divisions at LBNL, INFN and the Department of Physics in Padova, Italy, INFN and the Department of Physics in Torino, Italy and the Department of Physics of Purdue University

Bonding of the Inner Tracker Silicon Microstrip Modules

Microbonding of the CMS Tracker Inner Barrel (TIB) and Tracker Inner Disks (TID) modules was shared among six different Italian Institutes. The organization devised and the infrastructure deployed to handle this task is illustrated. Microbonding specifications and procedures for the different types of TIB and TID modules are given. The tooling specially designed and developed for these types of modules is described. Experience of production is presented. Attained production rates are given. An analysis of the microbonding quality achieved is presented, based on bond strengths measured in sample bond pull tests as well as on rates of bonding failures. Italian Bonding Centers routinely performed well above minimum specifications and a very low global introduced failure rate, at the strip level, of only $\sim$0.015 \% is observed

Upadacitinib effectiveness and factors associated with minimal disease activity achievement in patients with psoriatic arthritis: preliminary data of a real-life multicenter study

Background Upadacitinib (UPA) is a selective JAK inhibitor recently approved for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis (PsA). In this post-approval study, we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of UPA over 24 weeks and identify clinical predictors of response, in a multicentric cohort of patients affected by PsA.Methods One hundred and twenty-six patients with PsA treated with UPA were enrolled in 10 Italian centres. UPA effectiveness outcomes, such as the proportion of patients with MDA status, DAPSA remission, and low disease activity, ASDAS-CRP inactive and low disease activity, and change from baseline in DAPSA and ASDAS-CRP scores, were evaluated every 12 weeks until week 24. The proportion of DAPSA minor, moderate, and major improvement, and ASDAS clinically important improvement (CII) and major improvement (MI) were considered as well. All treatment-related adverse events were collected during the observation period. Clinical predictors of MDA response at week 24 were evaluated through multivariate analysis.Results At baseline, 124/126 (98%) and 54/126 (43%) patients showed peripheral and axial involvement, respectively; 110 (87%) patients were intolerant or resistant to biologic DMARDs.At 24 weeks, MDA status, DAPSA remission, and ASDAS-CRP inactive disease were achieved in 47%, 23%, and 48% of patients, respectively. Minor, moderate, and major DAPSA improvement was observed in 67%, 39%, and 23%, respectively; while 65% and 35% achieved ASDAS-CRP CII and MI, respectively. The mean change from baseline was 15.9 +/- 13.5 (p < 0.001) for DAPSA and 1.21 +/- 0.97 (p < 0.001) for ASDAS-CRP. thirteen patients (10%) discontinued UPA due to a lack of efficacy or non-serious adverse events. No serious adverse events were observed. Male gender (OR 2.54, 95% CI 1.03-6.25 p = 0.043), being naive to biological DMARDs (OR 4.13, 95% CI 1.34-12.71, p = 0.013) and elevated baseline CRP (OR 2.49, 95% CI 1.02-6.12, p = 0.046) were associated with MDA response at week 24.conclusions this is one of the first real-life studies supporting the effectiveness of UPA and its safety profile in PsA patients. Furthermore, the study identifies predictors of MDA response to UPA treatment at 6 months

Level-2 calorimeter Trigger Upgrade at CDF

The CDF Run II level 2 calorimeter trigger is implemented in hardware and is based on a simple algorithm that was used in Run I. This system has worked well for Run II at low luminosity. As the Tevatron instantaneous luminosity increases, the limitation due to this simple algorithm starts to become clear. As a result, some of the most important jet and MET (missing ET) related triggers have large growth terms in cross section at higher luminosity. In this paper, we present an upgrade of the L2CAL system which makes the full calorimeter trigger tower information directly available to the level 2 decision CPU. This upgrade is based on the Pulsar, a general purpose VME board developed at CDF and already used for upgrading both the level 2 global decision crate and the level 2 silicon vertex tracking. The upgrade system allows more sophisticated algorithms to be implemented in software and both level 2 jets and MET can be made nearly equivalent to offline quality, thus significantly improving the performance and flexibility of the jet and MET related triggers. This is a natural expansion of the already-upgraded level 2 trigger system, and is a big step forward to improve the CDF triggering capability at level 2. This paper describes the design, the hardware and software implementation and the performance of the upgrade system