3D silicon pixel detectors for the High-Luminosity LHC

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development and testing of 3D silicon pixel detectors for the HL-LHC, highlighting their radiation hardness, low operational voltage, and high efficiency in high-radiation environments.

Contribution

It presents new small-pixel 3D detector designs optimized for HL-LHC conditions, demonstrating their excellent performance and radiation tolerance.

Findings

Detectors operate efficiently at low voltages (~1-2V) before irradiation.

Achieved hit efficiencies of about 97% in tests.

Demonstrated radiation hardness up to HL-LHC fluences.

Abstract

3D silicon pixel detectors have been investigated as radiation-hard candidates for the innermost layers of the HL-LHC upgrade of the ATLAS pixel detector. 3D detectors are already in use today in the ATLAS IBL and AFP experiments. These are based on 50x250 um2 large pixels connected to the FE-I4 readout chip. Detectors of this generation were irradiated to HL-LHC fluences and demonstrated excellent radiation hardness with operational voltages as low as 180 V and power dissipation of 12--15 mW/cm2 at a fluence of about 1e16 neq/cm2, measured at -25 degree C. Moreover, to cope with the higher occupancies expected at the HL-LHC, a first run of a new generation of 3D detectors designed for the HL-LHC was produced at CNM with small pixel sizes of 50x50 and 25x100 um2, matched to the FE-I4 chip. They demonstrated a good performance in the laboratory and in beam tests with hit efficiencies of about 97% at already 1--2V before irradiation.