Topmetal-M: a novel pixel sensor for compact tracking applications

TL;DR

Topmetal-M is a large-area pixel sensor combining novel charge collection and in-pixel circuitry, enabling precise measurement of particle trajectory, energy, and timing for compact tracking applications.

Contribution

It introduces a new charge collection method integrating MAPS and Topmetal in a 130 nm CMOS process, with in-pixel circuits for energy and timing measurements.

Findings

Prototype sensor with 400x512 pixels demonstrated

Charge collection and timing measurement capabilities validated

Preliminary tests show promising performance

Abstract

The Topmetal-M is a large area pixel sensor (18 mm * 23 mm) prototype fabricated in a new 130 nm high-resistivity CMOS process in 2019. It contains 400 rows * 512 columns square pixels with the pitch of 40 {\mu}m. In Topmetal-M, a novel charge collection method combing the Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (MAPS) and the Topmetal sensor has been proposed for the first time. Both the ionized charge deposited by the particle in the sensor and along the track over the sensor can be collected. The in-pixel circuit mainly consists of a low-noise charge sensitive amplifier to establish the signal for the energy reconstruction, and a discriminator with a Time-to-Amplitude Converter (TAC) for the Time of Arrival (TOA) measurement. With this mechanism, the trajectory, particle hit position, energy and arrival time of the particle can be measured. The analog signal from each pixel is accessible through time-shared multiplexing over the entire pixel array. This paper will discuss the design and preliminary test results of the Topmetal-M sensor.