Performance of irradiated thin n-in-p planar pixel sensors for the ATLAS Inner Tracker upgrade

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the performance of irradiated thin n-in-p planar pixel sensors designed for the ATLAS Inner Tracker upgrade, focusing on their efficiency, charge collection, and electric field properties after irradiation.

Contribution

It introduces new sensor designs with optimized punch-through biasing and assesses their performance for HL-LHC conditions, demonstrating their radiation hardness and suitability.

Findings

Sensors maintain high efficiency after irradiation

Optimized punch-through biasing reduces efficiency loss

Performance characterized by beam tests and TCT

Abstract

The ATLAS collaboration will replace its tracking detector with new all silicon pixel and strip systems. This will allow to cope with the higher radiation and occupancy levels expected after the 5-fold increase in the luminosity of the LHC accelerator complex (HL-LHC). In the new tracking detector (ITk) pixel modules with increased granularity will implement to maintain the occupancy with a higher track density. In addition, both sensors and read-out chips composing the hybrid modules will be produced employing more radiation hard technologies with respect to the present pixel detector. Due to their outstanding performance in terms of radiation hardness, thin n-in-p sensors are promising candidates to instrument a section of the new pixel system. Recently produced and developed sensors of new designs will be presented. To test the sensors before interconnection to chips, a punch-through biasing structure has been implemented. Its design has been optimized to decrease the possible tracking efficiency losses observed. After irradiation, they were caused by the punch-through biasing structure. A sensor compatible with the ATLAS FE-I4 chip with a pixel size of 50x250 $\mathrm{\mu}$m$^{2}$, subdivided into smaller pixel implants of 30x30 $\mathrm{\mu}$m$^{2}$ size was designed to investigate the performance of the 50x50 $\mathrm{\mu}$m$^{2}$ pixel cells foreseen for the HL-LHC. Results on sensor performance of 50x250 and 50x50 $\mathrm{\mu}$m$^{2}$ pixel cells in terms of efficiency, charge collection and electric field properties are obtained with beam tests and the Transient Current Technique.