Test beam performance measurements for the Phase I upgrade of the CMS pixel detector

A new pixel detector for the CMS experiment was built in order to cope with the instantaneous luminosities anticipated for the Phase I Upgrade of the LHC. The new CMS pixel detector provides four-hit tracking with a reduced material budget as well as new cooling and powering schemes. A new front-end readout chip mitigates buffering and bandwidth limitations, and allows operation at low comparator thresholds. In this paper, comprehensive test beam studies are presented, which have been conducted to verify the design and to quantify the performance of the new detector assemblies in terms of tracking efficiency and spatial resolution. Under optimal conditions, the tracking efficiency is (99.95 ± 0.05) %, while the intrinsic spatial resolutions are (4.80 ± 0.25) μm and (7.99 ± 0.21) μm along the 100 μm and 150 μm pixel pitch, respectively. The findings are compared to a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the pixel detector and good agreement is found.Peer reviewe

Selection of the silicon sensor thickness for the Phase-2 upgrade of the CMS Outer Tracker

During the operation of the CMS experiment at the High-Luminosity LHC the silicon sensors of the Phase-2 Outer Tracker will be exposed to radiation levels that could potentially deteriorate their performance. Previous studies had determined that planar float zone silicon with n-doped strips on a p-doped substrate was preferred over p-doped strips on an n-doped substrate. The last step in evaluating the optimal design for the mass production of about 200 m$^{2}$ of silicon sensors was to compare sensors of baseline thickness (about 300 μm) to thinned sensors (about 240 μm), which promised several benefits at high radiation levels because of the higher electric fields at the same bias voltage. This study provides a direct comparison of these two thicknesses in terms of sensor characteristics as well as charge collection and hit efficiency for fluences up to 1.5 × 10$^{15}$ n$_{eq}$/cm$^{2}$. The measurement results demonstrate that sensors with about 300 μm thickness will ensure excellent tracking performance even at the highest considered fluence levels expected for the Phase-2 Outer Tracker

Beam test performance of a prototype module with Short Strip ASICs for the CMS HL-LHC tracker upgrade

The Short Strip ASIC (SSA) is one of the four front-end chips designed for the upgrade of the CMS Outer Tracker for the High Luminosity LHC. Together with the Macro-Pixel ASIC (MPA) it will instrument modules containing a strip and a macro-pixel sensor stacked on top of each other. The SSA provides both full readout of the strip hit information when triggered, and, together with the MPA, correlated clusters called stubs from the two sensors for use by the CMS Level-1 (L1) trigger system. Results from the first prototype module consisting of a sensor and two SSA chips are presented. The prototype module has been characterized at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility using a 120 GeV proton beam

Characterisation of irradiated thin silicon sensors for the CMS phase II pixel upgrade

The high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider, foreseen for 2026, necessitates the replacement of the CMS experiment's silicon tracker. The innermost layer of the new pixel detector will be exposed to severe radiation, corresponding to a 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence of up to Phi(eq) = 2x10(16) cm(-2), and an ionising dose of approximate to 5 MGy after an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb(-1). Thin, planar silicon sensors are good candidates for this application, since the degradation of the signal produced by traversing particles is less severe than for thicker devices. In this paper, the results obtained from the characterisation of 100 and 200 mu m thick p-bulk pad diodes and strip sensors irradiated up to fluences of Phi(eq) = 1.3 x 10(16) cm(-2) are shown.Peer reviewe

Comparative evaluation of analogue front-end designs for the CMS Inner Tracker at the High Luminosity LHC

The CMS Inner Tracker, made of silicon pixel modules, will be entirely replaced prior to the start of the High Luminosity LHC period. One of the crucial components of the new Inner Tracker system is the readout chip, being developed by the RD53 Collaboration, and in particular its analogue front-end, which receives the signal from the sensor and digitizes it. Three different analogue front-ends (Synchronous, Linear, and Differential) were designed and implemented in the RD53A demonstrator chip. A dedicated evaluation program was carried out to select the most suitable design to build a radiation tolerant pixel detector able to sustain high particle rates with high efficiency and a small fraction of spurious pixel hits. The test results showed that all three analogue front-ends presented strong points, but also limitations. The Differential front-end demonstrated very low noise, but the threshold tuning became problematic after irradiation. Moreover, a saturation in the preamplifier feedback loop affected the return of the signal to baseline and thus increased the dead time. The Synchronous front-end showed very good timing performance, but also higher noise. For the Linear front-end all of the parameters were within specification, although this design had the largest time walk. This limitation was addressed and mitigated in an improved design. The analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the three front-ends in the context of the CMS Inner Tracker operation requirements led to the selection of the improved design Linear front-end for integration in the final CMS readout chip

Test beam performance of a CBC3-based mini-module for the Phase-2 CMS Outer Tracker before and after neutron irradiation

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will undergo major upgrades to increase the instantaneous luminosity up to 5–7.5×10$^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$. This High Luminosity upgrade of the LHC (HL-LHC) will deliver a total of 3000–4000 fb-1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13–14 TeV. To cope with these challenging environmental conditions, the strip tracker of the CMS experiment will be upgraded using modules with two closely-spaced silicon sensors to provide information to include tracking in the Level-1 trigger selection. This paper describes the performance, in a test beam experiment, of the first prototype module based on the final version of the CMS Binary Chip front-end ASIC before and after the module was irradiated with neutrons. Results demonstrate that the prototype module satisfies the requirements, providing efficient tracking information, after being irradiated with a total fluence comparable to the one expected through the lifetime of the experiment

The CMS Phase-1 pixel detector upgrade

The CMS detector at the CERN LHC features a silicon pixel detector as its innermost subdetector. The original CMS pixel detector has been replaced with an upgraded pixel system (CMS Phase-1 pixel detector) in the extended year-end technical stop of the LHC in 2016/2017. The upgraded CMS pixel detector is designed to cope with the higher instantaneous luminosities that have been achieved by the LHC after the upgrades to the accelerator during the first long shutdown in 2013–2014. Compared to the original pixel detector, the upgraded detector has a better tracking performance and lower mass with four barrel layers and three endcap disks on each side to provide hit coverage up to an absolute value of pseudorapidity of 2.5. This paper describes the design and construction of the CMS Phase-1 pixel detector as well as its performance from commissioning to early operation in collision data-taking.Peer reviewe

P-Type Silicon Strip Sensors for the new CMS Tracker at HL-L-HC

Abstract: The upgrade of the LHC to the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) is expected to increase the LHC design luminosity by an order of magnitude. This will require silicon tracking detectors with a significantly higher radiation hardness. The CMS Tracker Collaboration has conducted an irradiation and measurement campaign to identify suitable silicon sensor materials and strip designs for the future outer tracker at the CMS experiment. Based on these results, the collaboration has chosen to use n-in-p type silicon sensors and focus further investigations on the optimization of that sensor type

Targeting HIV-1 entry and reverse transcription by vaccination

Human immunodeficiency virus type I (HIV-1) is a complex retrovirus, which uses the CD4 receptor and chemokine receptors to infect its target cells. The chemokine receptor CCR5 is essential for primary HIV-1 infection. The hallmark of retroviruses is the enzyme reverse transcriptase (RT), which transcribes the virus genome from RNA to DNA. RT is a major target for HIV drugs but antiviral treatment often selects for drug resistant virus variants. RT lacks proofreading, which accounts for a great deal of the high variability of HIV-1 genomes. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the RT gene and the CCR5 gene as immunogens and to develop an animal model for HIV- I drug resistance. The human CCR5 gene was used together with the adjuvant granulocyte macrophage colonystimulating factor (GM-CSF) for immunization of mice and monkeys (cynomolgus macaques). Immunization with the CCR5 gene induced antibody responses in both mice and monkeys. The macaques were boosted with CCR5 peptides in the rectal mucosa. This potentiated local IgA responses as well as systemic IgA and IgG antibody responses to human and macaque CCR5 peptides. The detected CCR5 antibodies demonstrate that we were able to break tolerance and immunize against the endogenous CCR5 receptor. Interestingly, the CCR5 peptide boost abolished or decreased CCR5 gene-induced antibody responses towards native CCR5. Sera from vaccinated animals blocked infection of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) with HIV-1 and with simian immunodeficiency virus sooty mangabey (SIVsm) in vitro. Regrettably none of the CCR5-immunized monkeys were protected from SIVsm challenge. In one vaccinated animal the virus surprisingly evolved and started to use the CCR5 receptor more efficiently than before. Thus CCR5 immunization may lead to the evolution of viruses with new properties which may be negative for the patient. This has to be investigated further. Different immunization strategies were tested in order to induce strong RT specific immune responses. The adjuvant effect of bacterial DNA (CpG-oligodeoxynucleotides, ODN) was evaluated in this context. A prime with the RT gene followed by protein with CpG-ODN boost induced the most potent cellular immune responses in both mice and macaques. After challenge of mice with HIVI/murine leukemia virus (HIV-1/MuLV), cellular immune responses in splenocytes were equal in the groups: receiving a) DNA followed by protein with CpG-ODN or b) protein with CpG-ODN. In both these groups protection from challenge was observed in some of the vaccinated mice. Consequently the evaluated three-component vaccination strategy induced potent humoral and cellular immune responses to RT and provided partial protection from HIV-1. RT may therefore be an important component of an HIV- I vaccine. HIV-1 drug resistance mutations found in vitro do not always correlate to the mutations found in vivo in treated patients. An in vivo model for the study of resistance development in macaques was constructed. The occurrence, type and duration of RT mutations during treatment with the nonnucloside inhibitor nevirapine were analyzed over time. We found a good correspondence of mutation pattern and kinetics between the monkey model and known data from nevirapine treated patients. Mutation K103N found in the drug treated monkeys was infrequently selected by nevirapine in cell culture. This indicates that the monkey model might be used to detect mutations that are difficult or impossible to predict in vitro. This model can also be used to study new vaccines targeted to RT with drug-induced mutations. In conclusion we were able to induce immune responses to both the CCR5 and the RT gene products. CCR5 specific antibodies induced unpredicted virus evolution to a higher receptor affinity. RT specific immune responses partially protected mice from HIV-1/MuLV infection. A primate model for HIV-1 drug resistance was successfully developed. This model may be used in future studies of vaccines directed to RT with drug-induced mutations

Locked nucleic acid containing antisense oligonucleotides enhance inhibition of HIV-1 genome dimerization and inhibit virus replication

We have evaluated antisense design and efficacy of locked nucleic acid (LNA) and DNA oligonucleotide (ON) mix-mers targeting the conserved HIV-1 dimerization initiation site (DIS). LNA is a high affinity nucleotide analog, nuclease resistant and elicits minimal toxicity. We show that inclusion of LNA bases in antisense ONs augments the interference of HIV-1 genome dimerization. We also demonstrate the concomitant RNase H activation by six consecutive DNA bases in an LNA/DNA mix-mer. We show ON uptake via receptor-mediated transfection of a human T-cell line in which the mix-mers subsequently inhibit replication of a clinical HIV-1 isolate. Thus, the technique of LNA/DNA mix-mer antisense ONs targeting the conserved HIV-1 DIS region may provide a strategy to prevent HIV-1 assembly in the clinic