Advanced Pixel Sensors and Readout Electronics Based on 3D Integration for the SuperB Silicon Vertex Tracker

AbstractThe potential of 3D integration of sensors and readout electronics is being explored in view of the demanding requirements of the innermost layer of the SuperB Silicon Vertex Tracker. This paper reviews the 3D designs that are targeting SuperB, which include CMOS active pixel sensors and front-end chips for fully-depleted, high-resistivity pixel sensors

Development of a triple well CMOS MAPS device with in-pixel signal processing and sparsified readout capabilities

none 39 The SLIM5 collaboration has designed, fabricated and tested several prototypes of CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS). The key feature of these devices, with respect to traditional MAPS is to include, at the pixel level, charge amplification and shaping and a first sparsification structure that interfaces with on-chip digital readout circuits. Via the 3-well option of the applied View the MathML source ST-Microelectronics CMOS technology each pixel includes a charge preamplifier, a shaper, a discriminator, an output latch, while retaining a fill factor of the sensitive area close to 90%. The last device of the family was submitted on Q4 2006 and the tests are ongoing. On this sensor, an on-chip, off-pixel digital readout block (streamout data sparsification) was added to implement, to control and to readout a test matrix built up of 4×4 pixels. It is aimed at proposing solutions that will overcome the readout speed limit of future large-matrix MAPS chips. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2007.07.135 none G. Batignani; S. Bettarini; F. Bosi; G. Calderini; R. Cenci; M. Dell'Orso; F. Forti P. ; M.A. Giorgi; A. Lusiani; G. Marchiori; F. Morsani; N. Neri; E. Paoloni; G. Rizzo1; J. Walsh; L. Gaioni; M. Manghisoni; V. Re; G. Traversi; M. Bruschi; A. Gabrielli; B. Giacobbe; N. Semprini; R. Spighi; M. Villa; A. Zoccoli; G. Verzellesi; C. Andreoli5; E. Pozzati; L. Ratti; V. Speziali; D. Gamba; G. Giraudo; P. Mereu; L. Bosisio; G. Giacomini; L. Lanceri; I. Rachevskaia; L. Vitale G. Batignani; S. Bettarini; F. Bosi; G. Calderini; R. Cenci; M. Dell'Orso; F. Forti P. ; M.A. Giorgi; A. Lusiani; G. Marchiori; F. Morsani; N. Neri; E. Paoloni; G. Rizzo1; J. Walsh; L. Gaioni; M. Manghisoni; V. Re; G. Traversi; M. Bruschi; A. Gabrielli; B. Giacobbe; N. Semprini; R. Spighi; M. Villa; A. Zoccoli; G. Verzellesi; C. Andreoli5; E. Pozzati; L. Ratti; V. Speziali; D. Gamba; G. Giraudo; P. Mereu; L. Bosisio; G. Giacomini; L. Lanceri; I. Rachevskaia; L. Vital

Postoperative Pain, an Unmet Problem in Day or Overnight Italian Surgery Patients: A Prospective Study

Background. Because of economic reasons, day surgery rates have steadily increased in many countries and the trend is to perform around 70% of all surgical procedures as day surgery. Literature shows that postoperative pain treatment remains unfulfilled in several fields such as orthopedic and general surgery patients. In Italy, the day surgery program is not yet under governmental authority and is managed regionally by local practices. Aim. To investigate the trends in pain intensity and its relation to type of surgeries and pain therapy protocols, in postoperative patients, discharged from three different Ambulatory Surgeries located in North West Italy (Piedmont region). Method. The present study enrolled 276 patients who undergone different surgical procedures in ambulatory regimen. Patients recorded postoperative pain score twice a day, compliance with prescribed drugs, and pain related reasons for contacting the hospital. Monitoring lasted for 7 days. Results. At discharge, 72% of patients were under weak opioids, 12% interrupted the treatment due to side effects, 17% of patients required extra drugs, and 15% contacted the hospital reporting pain problems. About 50% of patients experienced moderate pain during the first day after surgery. Results from our study show that most of the patients experienced avoidable pain after discharge

Gut dysbiosis and adaptive immune response in diet-induced obesity vs. Systemic inflammation

A mutual interplay exists between adaptive immune system and gut microbiota. Altered gut microbial ecosystems are associated with the metabolic syndrome, occurring in most obese individuals. However, it is unknown why 10-25% of obese individuals are metabolically healthy, while normal weight individuals can develop inflammation and atherosclerosis. We modeled these specific metabolic conditions in mice fed with a chow diet, an obesogenic but not inflammatory diet-mimicking healthy obesity, or Paigen diet-mimicking inflammation in the lean subjects. We analyzed a range of markers and cytokines in the aorta, heart, abdominal fat, liver and spleen, and metagenomics analyses were performed on stool samples. T lymphocytes infiltration was found in the aorta and in the liver upon both diets, however a significant increase in CD4+ and CD8+ cells was found only in the heart of Paigen-fed animals, paralleled by increased expression of IL-1, IL-4, IL-6, IL-17, and IFN-\u3b3. Bacteroidia, Deltaproteobacteria, and Verrucomicrobia dominated in mice fed Paigen diet, while Gammaproteobacteria, Delataproteobacteria, and Erysipelotrichia were more abundant in obese mice. Mice reproducing human metabolic exceptions displayed gut microbiota phylogenetically distinct from normal diet-fed mice, and correlated with specific adaptive immune responses. Diet composition thus has a pervasive role in co-regulating adaptive immunity and the diversity of microbiota

Database MISIT (Mappatura delle Informazioni di Strutture e Infrastrutture sul Territorio)

Nuovo sistema di database con strumenti GIS e BIM per la gestione intelligente e funzionale di risorse sul territorio. Applicazione a progetto pilota sul territorio della città di Roma.The project scope of this paper is to show how to use the cutting-edges informatics technologies for buildings and infrastructures. In fact GIS (Geographic Information System) and BIM (Building Information Modeling) are extremely useful to "build" a intelligent and functional database with geographic information. It is possible to use this method for existing structures/infrastructures or for their design, and this is essential to manage in a good way the resources on the territory. It is described a research project for the Municipality V of the city of Rome and ideas for future uses

PixFEL: development of an X-ray diffraction imager for future FEL applications

A readout chip for diffraction imaging applications at new generation X-ray FELs (Free Electron Lasers) has been designed in a 65 nm CMOS technology. It consists of a 32 × 32 matrix, with square pixels and a pixel pitch of 110 µm. Each cell includes a low-noise charge sensitive amplifier (CSA) with dynamic signal compression, covering an input dynamic range from 1 to 104 photons and featuring single photon resolution at small signals at energies from 1 to 10 keV. The CSA output is processed by a time-variant shaper performing gated integration and correlated double sampling. Each pixel includes also a small area, low power 10-bit time-interleaved Successive Approximation Register (SAR) ADC for in-pixel digitization of the amplitude measurement. The channel can be operated at rates up to 4.5 MHz, to be compliant with the rates foreseen for future X-ray FEL machines. The ASIC has been designed in order to be bump bonded to a slim/active edge pixel sensor, in order to build the first demonstrator for the PixFEL (advanced X-ray PIXel cameras at FELs) imager

CMOS monolithic sensors in a homogeneous 3D process for low energy particle imaging

A 3D, through silicon via microelectronic process, capable of face-to-face assembling two 130 nm CMOS tiers in a single bi-layer wafer, has been exploited for the design of monolithic active pixels (MAPS), featuring a deep N-well (DNW) collecting electrode. They are expected to improve on planar CMOS DNW MAPS in terms of charge collection efficiency since most of the PMOS transistors in the front-end electronics, with their N-wells, can be moved to a different layer from that of the DNW sensor. The vertical integration process also requires that one of the two CMOS tiers be thinned down to a mere 6 m to expose the through silicon vias and contact the sandwiched circuits. In this work, results from device simulations of 3D MAPS will be presented. The aim is to evaluate the potential of such a thin sensitive substrate in the detection of low energy particles (in the tens of keV range), in view of possible applications to biomedical imaging

The analog signal processor of the Auger fluorescence detector prototype

The Auger Fluorescence Detector will allow to determine the longitudinal development of atmospheric showers in the range 10 19 –10 21 eV. A detector module comprises an array of 20 � 22 PMTs at the focal surface of a large-aperture telescope. Thirty such modules will be used. The PMTs pixel signal is variable in shape depending on the shower-eye geometry. The sky background light (BL) is also variable. We have developed an analog signal processor to obtain best energy and timing resolution despite those constrains. The Head Electronics (HE) bias the PMTs and keeps its pulsegain constant even for large BL. This is measured using a current-monitor of novel design. Both the signal pulse and the BL DC level are sent via a single twisted pair to the Analog Board (AB). The AB performs the compression of the 15–16 bit signal dynamic range into 12 bits of the FADC which follows the AB. A three-pole Bessel filter was adopted for antialiasing. The AB includes 16 bit sigma-delta chips to readout the BL DC level, and a test-pulse distribution system. # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 29.4