STAR Vertex Detector Upgrade Development

We report on the development and prototyping efforts undertaken with the goal of producing a micro-vertex detector for the STAR experiment at the RHIC accelerator at BNL. We present the basic detector requirements and show a sensor development path, conceptual mechanical design candidates and readout architecture. Prototyping and beam test results with current generation MimoSTAR-2 sensors and a readout system featuring FPGA based on-the-fly hit finding and data sparsification are also presented

A MAPS Based Micro-Vertex Detector for the STAR Experiment

For the 2014 heavy ion run of RHIC a new micro-vertex detector called the Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) was installed in the STAR experiment. The HFT consists of three detector subsystems with various silicon technologies arranged in 4 approximately concentric cylinders close to the STAR interaction point designed to improve the STAR detector's vertex resolution and extend its measurement capabilities in the heavy flavor domain. The two innermost HFT layers are placed at radii of 2.8 cm and 8 cm from the beam line. These layers are constructed with 400 high resolution sensors based on CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (MAPS) technology arranged in 10-sensor ladders mounted on 10 thin carbon fiber sectors to cover a total silicon area of 0.16 m 2 . Each sensor of this PiXeL (\u201cPXL\u201d) sub-detector combines a pixel array of 928 rows and 960 columns with a 20.7 \u3bcm pixel pitch together with front-end electronics and zero-suppression circuitry in one silicon die providing a sensitive area of 3c3.8 cm 2 . This sensor architecture features 185.6 \u3bcs readout time and 170 mW/cm 2 power dissipation. This low power dissipation allows the PXL detector to be air-cooled, and with the sensors thinned down to 50 \u3bcm results in a global material budget of only 0.4% radiation length per layer. A novel mechanical approach to detector insertion allows us to effectively install and integrate the PXL sub-detector within a 12 hour period during an on-going multi-month data taking period. The detector requirements, architecture and design, as well as the performance after installation, are presented in this paper

Novel integrated CMOS pixel structures for vertex detectors

Novel CMOS active pixel structures for vertex detector applications have been designed and tested. The overriding goal of this work is to increase the signal to noise ratio of the sensors and readout circuits. A large-area native epitaxial silicon photogate was designed with the aim of increasing the charge collected per struck pixel and to reduce charge diffusion to neighboring pixels. The photogate then transfers the charge to a low capacitance readout node to maintain a high charge to voltage conversion gain. Two techniques for noise reduction are also presented. The first is a per-pixel kT/C noise reduction circuit that produces results similar to traditional correlated double sampling (CDS). It has the advantage of requiring only one read, as compared to two for CDS, and no external storage or subtraction is needed. The technique reduced input-referred temporal noise by a factor of 2.5, to 12.8 e{sup -}. Finally, a column-level active reset technique is explored that suppresses kT/C noise during pixel reset. In tests, noise was reduced by a factor of 7.6 times, to an estimated 5.1 e{sup -} input-referred noise. The technique also dramatically reduces fixed pattern (pedestal) noise, by up to a factor of 21 in our tests. The latter feature may possibly reduce pixel-by-pixel pedestal differences to levels low enough to permit sparse data scan without per-pixel offset corrections

Small-Scale Readout Systems Prototype for the STAR PIXEL Detector

A prototype readout system for the STAR PIXEL detector in the Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) vertex detector upgrade is presented. The PIXEL detector is a Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (MAPS) based silicon pixel vertex detector fabricated in a commercial CMOS process that integrates the detector and front-end electronics layers in one silicon die. Two generations ofMAPS prototypes designed specifically for the PIXEL are discussed. We have constructed a prototype telescope system consisting of three small MAPS sensors arranged in three parallel and coaxial planes with a readout system based on the readout architecture for PIXEL. This proposed readout architecture is simple and scales to the size required to readout the final detector. The real-time hit finding algorithm necessary for data rate reduction in the 400 million pixel detector is described, and aspects of the PIXEL system integration into the existing STAR framework are addressed. The complete system has been recently tested and shown to be fully functional

The STAR MAPS-based PiXeL detector

The PiXeL detector (PXL) for the Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) of the STAR experiment at RHIC is the first application of the state-of-the-art thin Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) technology in a collider environment. Custom built pixel sensors, their readout electronics and the detector mechanical structure are described in detail. Selected detector design aspects and production steps are presented. The detector operations during the three years of data taking (2014-2016) and the overall performance exceeding the design specifications are discussed in the conclusive sections of this paper

Towards an understanding of neuroscience for science educators

Advances in neuroscience have brought new insights to the development of cognitive functions. These data are of considerable interest to educators concerned with how students learn. This review documents some of the recent findings in neuroscience, which is richer in describing cognitive functions than affective aspects of learning. A brief overview is presented here of the techniques used to generate data from imaging and how these findings have the possibility to inform educators. There are implications for considering the impact of neuroscience at all levels of education – from the classroom teacher and practitioner to policy. This relatively new cross-disciplinary area of research implies a need for educators and scientists to engage with each other. What questions are emerging through such dialogues between educators and scientists are likely to shed light on, for example, reward, motivation, working memory, learning difficulties, bilingualism and child development. The sciences of learning are entering a new paradigm

Studies on germ cells. I. The history of the germ cells in insects with special reference to the Keimbahn-determinants. II. The origin and significance of the Keimbahn-determinants in animals

No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50235/1/1050250302_ftp.pd

The STAR Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT): Focus on the MAPS based PXL detector

11The heavy quark hadrons are suggested as a clean probe for studying the early dynamic evolution of the dense and hot medium created in high-energy nuclear collisions. The Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) of the STAR experiment, designed to improve the vertex resolution and extend the measurement capabilities in the heavy flavor domain, was installed for the 2014 heavy ion run of RHIC. It is composed of three different silicon detectors arranged in four concentric cylinders close to the STAR interaction point. The two inner-most layers are based on CMOS monolithic active pixels (MAPS), featured for the first time in a collider experiment, while the two outer layers are based on pads and strips. The two innermost HFT layers are placed at a radius of 2.7 and 8 cm from the beam line and accommodate 400 ultra-thin (50 μm) high resolution MAPS sensors arranged in 10-sensor ladders to cover a total silicon area of 0.16 m2. Each sensor includes a pixel array of 928 rows and 960 columns with a 20.7 μm pixel pitch, providing a sensitive area of ∼ 3.8 cm2. The sensor features 185.6 μs readout time and 170 mW/cm2 power dissipation. The detector is air-cooled, allowing a global material budget as low as 0.39% X/X0 on the inner layer. A novel mechanical approach to detector insertion enables effective installation and integration of the pixel layers within an 8 hour shift during the on-going STAR run. After a detailed description of the design specifications and the technology implementation, the detector status and operations during the current 200 GeV Au+Au run will be presented in this paper, with a particular focus on calibration and general system operations aimed at stabilizing the running conditions. A preliminary estimation of the detector performance meeting the design requirements will be reported.openopenContin, Giacomo*; Anderssen, Eric; Greiner, Leo; Schambach, Joachim; Silber, Joseph; Stezelberger, Thorsten; Sun, Xiangming; Szelezniak, Michal; Vu, Chinh; Wieman, Howard; Woodmansee, SamContin, Giacomo; Anderssen, Eric; Greiner, Leo; Schambach, Joachim; Silber, Joseph; Stezelberger, Thorsten; Sun, Xiangming; Szelezniak, Michal; Vu, Chinh; Wieman, Howard; Woodmansee, Sa

A CMOS Active Pixel Sensor for Charged Particle Detection

Active Pixel Sensor (APS) technology has shown promise for next-generation vertex detectors. This paper discusses the design and testing of two generations of APS chips. Both are arrays of 128 by 128 pixels, each 20 by 20 {micro}m. Each array is divided into sub-arrays in which different sensor structures (4 in the first version and 16 in the second) and/or readout circuits are employed. Measurements of several of these structures under Fe{sup 55} exposure are reported. The sensors have also been irradiated by 55 MeV protons to test for radiation damage. The radiation increased the noise and reduced the signal. The noise can be explained by shot noise from the increased leakage current and the reduction in signal is due to charge being trapped in the epi layer. Nevertheless, the radiation effect is small for the expected exposures at RHIC and RHIC II. Finally, we describe our concept for mechanically supporting a thin silicon wafer in an actual detector