Transient Monte Carlo Simulations for the Optimisation and Characterisation of Monolithic Silicon Sensors
Rafael Ballabriga, Justus Braach, Eric Buschmann, Michael Campbell, Dominik Dannheim, Katharina Dort, Lennart Huth, Iraklis Kremastiotis, Jens Kröger, Lucie Lin… 展开作者
Rafael Ballabriga, Justus Braach, Eric Buschmann, Michael Campbell, Dominik Dannheim, Katharina Dort, Lennart Huth, Iraklis Kremastiotis, Jens Kröger, Lucie Linssen, Magdalena Munker, Paul Schütze, Walter Snoeys, Simon Spannagel, Tomas Vanat
An ever-increasing demand for high-performance silicon sensors requires complex sensor designs that are challenging to simulate and model. The combination of electrostatic finite element simulations with a transient Monte Carlo approach provides simultaneous access to precise sensor modelling and high statistics. The high simulation statistics enable the inclusion of Landau fluctuations and production of secondary particles, which offers a realistic simulation scenario. The transient simulation approach is an important tool to achieve an accurate time-resolved description of the sensor, which is crucial in the face of novel detector prototypes with increasingly precise timing capabilities. The simulated time resolution as a function of operating parameters as well as the full transient pulse can be monitored and assessed, which offers a new perspective on the optimisation and characterisation of silicon sensors.
In this paper, a combination of electrostatic finite-element simulations using 3D TCAD and transient Monte Carlo simulations with the Allpix Squared framework are presented for a monolithic CMOS pixel sensor with a small collection diode, that is characterised by a highly inhomogeneous, complex electric field. The results are compared to transient 3D TCAD simulations that offer a precise simulation of the transient behaviour but long computation times. Additionally, the simulations are benchmarked against test-beam data and good agreement is found for the performance parameters over a wide range of different operation conditions.
The proposed magnetised Iron CALorimeter detector (ICAL) to be built in the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) laboratory aims to detect atmospheric muon neutrinos. In order to achieve improved physics results, the constituent components of the detector must be fully understood by proper characterisation and optimisation of various parameters. Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) are the active detector elements in the ICAL detector and can be made of glass or bakelite. The number of RPCs required for this detector are very large so a detailed study is necessary to establish the characterisatio…
Monolithic active pixel sensors produced in High Voltage CMOS (HV-CMOS) technology are being considered for High Energy Physics applications due to the ease of production and the reduced costs. Such technology is especially appealing when large areas to be covered and material budget are concerned. This is the case of the outermost pixel layers of the future ATLAS tracking detector for the HL-LHC. For experiments at hadron colliders, radiation hardness is a key requirement which is not fulfilled by standard CMOS sensor designs that collect charge by diffusion. This issue has been addressed by …
The CERN-RD50 CMOS working group develops the RD50-MPWseries of monolithic high-voltage CMOS pixel sensors for potential use in future high luminosity experiments such as the HL-LHC and FCC-hh. In this contribution, the design of the latest prototype in this series, RD50-MPW3, is presented. An overview of its pixel matrix and digital readout periphery is given, with discussion of the new structures implemented in the chip and the problems they aim to solve. The main analog and digital features of the sensor are already tested and initial laboratory characterisation of the chip is presented.
Over the last decade one of the most significant technological advances made in the field of radiation detectors for nuclear medicine was the development of Silicon Photomultipler (SiPM) sensors. At present a only small number of SiPM based radiation detectors for Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) applications have been explored, and even fewer experimental prototypes developed. An in-silico investigation into the optimal design of a Philips DPC3200 SiPM photosensor-based thin monolithic scintillator detector for SPECT applications was undertaken using the Monte Carlo radiatio…
The physics aims at the proposed future high-energy linear $e^+e^-$ collider CLIC pose challenging demands on the performance of the detector system. In particular, the vertex and tracking detectors have to combine a spatial resolution of a few micrometres and a low material budget with a time-stamping accuracy of a few nanoseconds. For the vertex detector, fine-pitch sensors, dedicated 65nm readout ASICs, fine-pitch bonding techniques using solder bumps or anisotropic conductive films as well as monolithic devices based on Silicon-On-Insulator technology are explored. Fully monolithic CMOS se…
SiGe BiCMOS technology can be used to produce ultra-fast, low-power silicon pixel sensors that provide state-of-the-art time resolution even without an internal gain mechanism. The development of such sensors requires the identification of the main factors that may degrade the timing performance and the characterisation of the dependance of the sensor time resolution on the amplifier power consumption. Measurements with a $ \mathrm{^{90}Sr} $ source of a prototype sensor produced in SG13G2 technology from IHP Microelectronics, shows a time resolution of 140 ps at an amplifier current of 7 $ \m…
The CLIC Tracker Detector (CLICTD) is a monolithic pixel sensor. It is fabricated in a 180 nm CMOS imaging process, modified with an additional deep low-dose n-type implant to obtain full lateral depletion. The sensor features a small collection diode, which is essential for achieving a low input capacitance. The CLICTD sensor was designed as a technology demonstrator in the context of the tracking detector studies for the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC). Its design characteristics are of broad interest beyond CLIC, for HL-LHC tracking detector upgrades. It is produced in two different pixel fl…
This work illustrates and compares some methods to measure the most relevant parameters of silicon photo-multipliers (\sipm{}s), such as photon detection efficiency as a function of over-voltage and wavelength, dark count rate, optical cross-talk, afterpulse probability. For the measurement of the breakdown voltage, $V_{BD}$, several methods using the current-voltage $IV$ curve are compared, such as the "IV Model", the "relative logarithmic derivative", the "inverse logarithmic derivative", the "second logarithmic derivative", and the "third derivative" models. We also show how some of these c…
Many years of research and development of High Voltage Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (HVMAPS) have culminated in the final design for the Mu3e pixel sensor. MuPix10 is a fully monolithic sensor with an active pixel matrix size of $20\times20\,\mathrm{mm}^2$ produced in the $180\,\mathrm{nm}$ HV-CMOS process at TSI Semiconductors. The pixel size is $80\times80\,\mathrm{μm}^2$. Hits are read out using a column-drain architecture and sent over up to four serial links with up to $1.6\,\left.\mathrm{Gbit}\middle/\mathrm{s}\right.$ each. By means of DC/DC converters and exclusive usage of on-chip …
We present studies of proton fluxes in the T10 beamline at CERN. A prototype high pressure gas time projection chamber (TPC) was exposed to the beam of protons and other particles, using the 0.8 GeV/c momentum setting in T10, in order to make cross section measurements of low energy protons in argon. To explore the energy region comparable to hadrons produced by GeV-scale neutrino interactions at oscillation experiments, i.e., near 0.1 GeV of kinetic energy, methods of moderating the T10 beam were employed: the dual technique of moderating the beam with acrylic blocks and measuring scattered p…
A novel approach for designing the next generation of vertex detectors foresees to employ wafer-scale sensors that can be bent to truly cylindrical geometries after thinning them to thicknesses of 20-40$μ$m. To solidify this concept, the feasibility of operating bent MAPS was demonstrated using 1.5$\times$3cm ALPIDE chips. Already with their thickness of 50$μ$m, they can be successfully bent to radii of about 2cm without any signs of mechanical or electrical damage. During a subsequent characterisation using a 5.4GeV electron beam, it was further confirmed that they preserve their full electri…
The Tangerine project aims to develop new state-of-the-art high-precision silicon detectors. Part of the project has the goal of developing a monolithic active pixel sensor using a novel 65 nm CMOS imaging process, with a small collection electrode. This is the first application of this process in particle physics, and it is of great interest as it allows for an increased logic density and reduced power consumption and material budget compared to other processes. The process is envisioned to be used in for example the next ALICE inner tracker upgrade, and in experiments at the electron-ion col…
The Mu3e experiment is searching for the charged lepton flavour violating decay $ μ^+\rightarrow e^+ e^- e^+ $, aiming for an ultimate sensitivity of one in $10^{16}$ decays. In an environment of up to $10^9$ muon decays per second the detector needs to provide precise vertex, time and momentum information to suppress accidental and physics background. The detector consists of cylindrical layers of $50\, μ\text{m}$ thin High Voltage Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (HV-MAPS) placed in a $1\,\text{T}$ magnetic field. The measurement of the trajectories of the decay particles allows for a precise…
