Towards Gotthard-II: Development of A Silicon Microstrip Detector for the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development and testing of a silicon microstrip detector, Gotthard-II, designed for the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser, focusing on its architecture, performance, and noise reduction strategies.

Contribution

It introduces the design and prototype testing of Gotthard-II, a novel silicon microstrip detector with adaptive gain switching for high-speed X-ray applications.

Findings

Performance characterized by noise, gain, and dynamic range measurements.

Strip-to-strip coupling effects identified as critical for detector performance.

Prototype results demonstrate feasibility for use in X-ray free-electron laser experiments.

Abstract

Gotthard-II is a 1-D microstrip detector specifically developed for the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser. It will not only be used in energy dispersive experiments but also as a beam diagnostic tool with additional logic to generate veto signals for the other 2-D detectors. Gotthard-II makes use of a silicon microstrip sensor with a pitch of either 50 {\mu}m or 25 {\mu}m and with 1280 or 2560 channels wire-bonded to adaptive gain switching readout chips. Built-in analog-to-digital converters and digital memories will be implemented in the readout chip for a continuous conversion and storage of frames for all bunches in the bunch train. The performance of analogue front-end prototypes of Gotthard has been investigated in this work. The results in terms of noise, conversionngain, dynamic range, obtained by means of infrared laser and X-rays, will be shown. In particular, the effects of the strip-to-strip coupling are studied in detail and it is found that the reduction of the coupling effects is one of the key factors for the development of the analogue front-end of Gotthard-II.