This is part of a document, which is devoted to the developments of pixel detectors in the context of the International Linear Collider. From the early developments of the MIMOSAs to the proposed DotPix I recall some of the major progresses. The need for very precise vertex reconstruction is the reason for the Research and Development of new pixel detectors, first derived from the CMOS sensors and in further steps with new semiconductors structures. The problem of radiation effects was investigated and this is the case for the noise level with emphasis of the benefits of downscaling. Specific semiconductor processing and characterisation techniques are also described, with the perspective of a new pixel structure.
Several algorithms for tracking and for primary and secondary vertex reconstruction have been developed by the ATLAS collaboration following different approaches. This has allowed a thorough cross-check of the performances of the algorithms and of the reconstruction software. The results of the most recent studies on this topic are discussed and compared.
The ALICE apparatus includes an Inner Tracking System for high-precision vertexing and tracking at midrapidity. Thanks to this detector, remarkable results were obtained with Run 2 data in all collision systems studied at the LHC. In this contribution, the role of the ITS in the event, track and secondary vertex reconstruction is highlighted, and the comparison of the resolution on the track impact parameter to the collision point in data and Monte Carlo simulations is reported. Finally, some of the main physics results obtained in pp and Pb--Pb collisions relying on the excellent ALICE vertex…
CMOS Pixel Sensors tend to become relevant for a growing spectrum of charged particle detection instruments. This comes mainly from their high granularity and low material budget. However, several potential applications require a higher read-out speed and radiation tolerance than those achieved with available devices based on a 0.35 micrometers feature size technology. This paper shows preliminary test results of new prototype sensors manufactured in a 0.18 micrometers process based on a high resistivity epitaxial layer of sizeable thickness. Grounded on these observed performances, we discuss…
CMOS pixel sensors (CPS) represent a novel technological approach to building charged particle detectors. CMOS processes allow to integrate a sensing volume and readout electronics in a single silicon die allowing to build sensors with a small pixel pitch ($\sim 20 μm$) and low material budget ($\sim 0.2-0.3\% X_0$) per layer. These characteristics make CPS an attractive option for vertexing and tracking systems of high energy physics experiments. Moreover, thanks to the mass production industrial CMOS processes used for the manufacturing of CPS the fabrication construction cost can be signifi…
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.
Belle II is a $B$ factory experiment aiming to start physics data taking in 2017. It is currently being set up at the SuperKEKB accelerator at the KEK facility in Tsukuba (Japan), an asymmetric $e^+e^-$ collider which aims to achieve an unprecedented instantaneous luminosity of $8\cdot10^{35} \textrm{Hz}/\textrm{cm}^2$. This forty-fold increase over predecessor experiments is achieved by employing a novel nano-beam scheme. Originally developed for the now-defunct SuperB experiment, this scheme allows a significant increase in luminosity at only modest increases of beam currents. Challenges for…
A large fraction of the results produced by the LHC experiments during the first run were made possible by precision vertexing detectors. The all-silicon tracking detector of the CMS experiment uses a pixel detector to do vertexing. This conference report uses four physics analyses as examples where pixel detector are used to either reconstruct primary vertices, separate event tracks from pileup, and/or determine displaced vertices.
In this report we discuss appropriate strategies for the tracking of charged particles in the limit of zero curvature. The suggested approach avoids special treatments and precision issues that frequently arise in that limit. We provide explicit expressions for transport, refitting and vertexing in regions where magnetic field inhomogeneities or detector interaction effects can be approximately ignored.
We present the second in a series of studies into the forward tracking system for a future linear $ e^+ e^- $ collider with a center-of-mass energy in the range from 250 GeV to 3 TeV. In this note a number of specific challenges are investigated, that have caused a degradation of the tracking and vertexing performance in the forward region in previous experiments. We perform a quantitative analysis of the dependence of the tracking performance on detector design parameters and identify several ways to mitigate the performance loss for charged particles emitted at shallow angle.
The present Compact Muon Solenoid silicon pixel tracking system has been designed for a peak luminosity of 1034cm-2s-1 and total dose corresponding to two years of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) operation. With the steady increase of the luminosity expected at the LHC, a new pixel detector with four barrel layers and three endcap disks is being designed. We will present the key points of the design: the new geometry, which minimizes the material budget and increases the tracking points, and the development of a fast digital readout architecture, which ensures readout efficiency even at high r…
The CMS inner pixel detector system is planned to be replaced during the first phase of the LHC luminosity upgrade. The plans foresee an ultra low mass system with four barrel layers and three disks on either end. With the expected increase in particle rates, the electronic readout chain will be changed for fast digital signals. An overview of the envisaged design options for the upgraded CMS pixel detector is given, as well as estimates of the tracking and vertexing performance.
During the Long Shutdown 2 of the LHC in 2018/2019, the ALICE experiment plans the installation of a novel Inner Tracking System. It will replace the current six layer detector system with a seven layer detector using Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors. The upgraded Inner Tracking System will have significantly improved tracking and vertexing capabilities, as well as readout rate to cope with the expected increased Pb-Pb luminosity of the LHC. The choice of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors has been driven by the specific requirements of ALICE as a heavy ion experiment dealing with rare processes a…
In 2015, the LHCb experiment established a new and unique software trigger strategy with the purpose of increasing the purity of the signal events by applying the same algorithms online and offline. To achieve this, real-time calibration and alignment of all LHCb sub-systems is needed to provide vertexing, tracking, and particle identification of the best possible quality. The calibration of the refractive index of the RICH radiators, the calibration of the Hybrid Photon Detector image, and the alignment of the RICH mirror system, are reported in this contribution. The stability of the RICH pe…
The Silicon Vertex Detector of Belle II is a state-of-the-art tracking and vertexing system based on double-sided silicon strip sensors, designed and fabricated by a large international collaboration in the period 2012--2018. Since 2019 it has been in operation providing high quality data with a small number of defective channels (<1%), a large hit-finding efficiency (>99%), a good signal-to-noise ratio (well in excess of 10 for all sensor configurations and tracks). Together with the good control over the alignment, these are all essential factors to achieve good tracking reconstruction and p…
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments ATLAS and CMS have established hybrid pixel detectors as the instrument of choice for particle tracking and vertexing in high rate and radiation environments, as they operate close to the LHC interaction points. With the High Luminosity-LHC upgrade now in sight, for which the tracking detectors will be completely replaced, new generations of pixel detectors are being devised. They have to address enormous challenges in terms of data throughput and radiation levels, ionizing and non-ionizing, that harm the sensing and readout parts of pixel detectors …
The combined vertexing and tracking performance of the innermost part of the FCC-ee experiments must deliver outstanding precision for measurement of the track momentum together with an impact parameter resolution exceeding by at least a factor five that typically achieved at LHC experiments. Furthermore, precision measurements require stability and fiducial accuracy at a level which is unprecedented in collider experiments. For the innermost vertex layers these goals translate into a target hit resolution of approximately 3 $μ$m together with a material budget of around 0.2\% of a radiation l…
Pixel vertex detectors are THE instrument of choice for the tracking of charged particles close to the interaction point at the LHC. Hybrid pixel detectors, in which sensor and read-out IC are separate entities, constitute the present state of the art in detector technology. Three of the LHC detectors use vertex detectors based on this technology. A development period of almost 10 years has resulted in pixel detector modules which can stand the extreme rate and timing requirements as well as the very harsh radiation environment at the LHC for its full life time and without severe compromises i…
The ATLAS Pixel detector is a high-resolution, low-noise silicon-based device designed to provide tracking and vertexing information within a distance of 12 cm from the LHC beam axis. It consists of approximately 80 million pixel channels with radiation-hard front-end electronics connected through optical fibers to a custom-controlled DAQ system away from the detector. Following the successful installation of the detector in June 2007, an intense commissioning period was conducted in the year 2008 and more than 400,000 cosmic-ray tracks were recorded in conjunction with other ATLAS sub-detecto…
The Pixel 2010 conference focused on semiconductor pixel detectors for particle tracking/vertexing as well as for imaging, in particular for synchrotron light sources and XFELs. The big LHC hybrid pixel detectors have impressively started showing their capabilities. X-ray imaging detectors, also using the hybrid pixel technology, have greatly advanced the experimental possibilities for diiffraction experiments. Monolithic or semi-monolithic devices like CMOS active pixels and DEPFET pixels have now reached a state such that complete vertex detectors for RHIC and superKEKB are being built with …
The Timepix particle tracking telescope has been developed as part of the LHCb VELO Upgrade project, supported by the Medipix Collaboration and the AIDA framework. It is a primary piece of infrastructure for the VELO Upgrade project and is being used for the development of new sensors and front end technologies for several upcoming LHC trackers and vertexing systems. The telescope is designed around the dual capability of the Timepix ASICs to provide information about either the deposited charge or the timing information from tracks traversing the 14 x 14mm matrix of 55 x 55 um pixels. The rat…
The next generation of radioactive ion beam facilities, which will give experimental access to many exotic nuclei, are presently being developed. At the same time the next generation of high resolution gamma-ray spectrometers, based on gamma-ray tracking, for studying the structure of these exotic nuclei are being developed. One of the main differences in tracking of $γ$ rays versus charged particles is that the gamma rays do not deposit their energy "continuously" in the detector, but in a few discrete steps. Also, in the field of nuclear spectroscopy, the location of the source is mostly wel…
DEPleted Field Effect Transistor (DEPFET) active pixel detectors combine a first amplification stage with a fully depleted sensor in one single device, resulting in a very good signal-to-noise ratio even for thin sensors. DEPFET pixels are produced in MOS technology with two metal and two poly-silicon layers and have been developed for the use in Xray imaging and tracking in particle physics experiments. The sensor concept will be presented and all aspects of operation will be detailed with the focus on its application at the upgraded detector Belle II under preparation for the high-luminosity…
Pixel Detectors, as the current technology of choice for the innermost vertex detection, have reached a stage at which large detectors have been built for the LHC experiments and a new era of developments, both for hybrid and for monolithic or semi-monolithic pixel detectors is in full swing. This is largely driven by the requirements of the upgrade programme for the superLHC and by other collider experiments which plan to use monolithic pixel detectors for the first time. A review on current pixel detector developments for particle tracking and vertexing is given, comprising hybrid pixel dete…
An overview of some progress and R&D activities of the Spanish network for future accelerators concerning the forward tracker detector of the International Large Detector is shown.
The CDF Run II silicon detector is the largest operating detector of its kind in High Energy Physics, collecting p-pbar collision data at the Fermilab Tevatron since 2001. It provides precision tracking and vertexing which played a critical role in the B_s mixing discovery and is essential to the ongoing Higgs Boson search and many other physics analyses carried out at CDF. Due to the prolonged Tevatron Run II program the detector faces unforeseen challenges while operating well beyond its design parameters. Of particular concern is the radiation aging of the silicon sensors which are expected…
Hybrid pixel detectors have been invented for the LHC to make tracking and vertexing possible at all in LHC's radiation intense environment. The LHC pixel detectors have meanwhile very successfully fulfilled their promises and R\&D for the planned HL-LHC upgrade is in full swing, targeting even higher ionising doses and non-ionising fluences. In terms of rate and radiation tolerance hybrid pixels are unrivaled. But they have disadvantages as well, most notably material thickness, production complexity, and cost. Meanwhile also active pixel sensors (DEPFET, MAPS) have become real pixel detector…
Small-diameter muon drift tube (sMDT) chambers with 15 mm tube diameter are a cost-effective technology for high-precision muon tracking over large areas at high background rates as expected at future high-energy hadron colliders including HL-LHC. The chamber design and construction procedures have been optimized for mass production and provide sense wire positioning accuracy of better than 10 ?m. The rate capability of the sMDT chambers has been extensively tested at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility. It exceeds the one of the ATLAS muon drift tube (MDT) chambers, which are operated at unpr…
The ATLAS Insertable B-Layer (IBL) collaboration plans to insert a fourth pixel layer inside the present Pixel Detector to recover from eventual failures in the current pixel system, especially the b-layer. Additionally the IBL will ensure excellent tracking, vertexing and b-tagging performance during the LHC phase I and add robustness in tracking with high luminosity pile-up. The expected peak luminosity for IBL is 2 to 3centerdot1034 cm-2s-1 and IBL is designed for an integrated luminosity of 700 fb-1. This corresponds to an expected fluence of 5centerdot1015 1 MeV neqcm-2 and a total ionizi…