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MALTA: A CMOS pixel sensor with asynchronous readout for the ATLAS High-Luminosity upgrade

  • Ivan Berdalovic
  • , Lluis Simon Argemi
  • , Roberto Cardella
  • , Florian Dachs
  • , Valerio Dao
  • , Leyre Flores Sanz De Acedo
  • , Tomasz Hemperek
  • , Bojan Hiti
  • , Thanushan Kugathasan
  • , Cesar Augusto Marin Tobon
  • , Konstantinos Moustakas
  • , Heinz Pernegger
  • , Francesco Piro
  • , Petra Riedler
  • , Enrico Junior Schioppa
  • , Abhishek Sharma
  • , Walter Snoeys
  • , Carlos Solans Sanchez
  • , Tomislav Suligoj
  • , Tianyang Wang
  • Piotr Rymaszewski, Ignacio Asensi Tortajada

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Radiation hard silicon sensors are required for the upgrade of the ATLAS tracking detector for the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) at CERN. A process modification in a standard 0.18 μm CMOS imaging technology combines small, low-capacitance electrodes (∼2 fF for the sensor) with a fully depleted active sensor volume. This results in a radiation hardness promising to meet the requirements of the ATLAS ITk outer pixel layers (1.5×1015 neq/cm2 ), and allows to achieve a high signal-to-noise ratio and fast signal response, as required by the HL-LHC 25 ns bunch crossing structure.The radiation hardness of the charge collection to Non-Ionizing Energy Loss (NIEL) has been previously characterised on prototypes for different pixel sensor cell designs. The encouraging results enabled the design of full-size monolithic CMOS sensors for the ATLAS ITk outermost pixel layer, which comprises ∼1.8 m2 of pixel sensor active area. In the MALTA sensor, we implement a fast, low-power analogue front-end together with a novel high-speed matrix readout architecture capable of meeting the challenging hit-rate requirements of up to 2 MHz/mm2 in the outer layers of the ITk pixel tracker. The front-end was optimized for the low sensor capacitance to achieve low noise (ENC < 20 e-) and low power operation (< 1 μW/pixel), with timing that meets the 25 ns requirement. The small size (∼2 μm) of the collection electrode also allows better shielding to prevent crosstalk from the full swing digital signals in the 36.4×36.4 μm2 pixel. MALTA features a 512 × 512 pixel matrix with a fully asynchronous readout architecture, without clock distribution over the matrix. This approach combines low digital power consumption with fast signal response and high hit-rate capability.This paper describes the implementation of this novel depleted monolithic sensor based on a low-capacitance analogue design with asynchronous readout, together with first test results from lab tests, radioactive source tests and X-ray measurements.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2018 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2018 - Proceedings
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9781538684948
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2018
Event2018 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2018 - Sydney, Australia
Duration: Nov 10 2018Nov 17 2018

Publication series

Name2018 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2018 - Proceedings

Conference

Conference2018 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2018
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CitySydney
Period11/10/1811/17/18

Keywords

  • Active pixel sensors
  • CMOS integrated circuits
  • position sensitive particle detectors
  • radiation effects
  • radiation hardening (electronics)
  • semiconductor detectors
  • solid state circuit design

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