Periodic Reporting for period 3 - AIDA-2020 (Advanced European Infrastructures for Detectors at Accelerators)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2018-05-01 do 2020-04-30
AIDA-2020 brought together the leading European infrastructures and academic institutions in detector development for particle physics, regrouping more than 10,000 scientists. 19 countries and CERN were involved in this programme aligned with the European Strategy for Particle Physics. With the upgrade of the LHC and its experiments, the community had to overcome unprecedented challenges, which AIDA-2020 addressed. AIDA-2020 advanced detector technologies beyond previous limits by offering well-equipped test beam and irradiation facilities for testing detector systems under its TA programme. Common software tools, microelectronics chips and DAQ systems were also provided. These shared high-quality infrastructures and standards ensured a coherent development by involving experts across Europe. The enhanced coordination within the European detector community leveraged EU and national resources and contributed to maintaining Europe's leadership in the field.
WP1 monitored the progress through meetings of the Steering Committee and ensured the contractual implementation of the project. 4 Annual Meetings (Hamburg, Paris, Bologna, Oxford) and an online Final Meeting were organised and each attended by around 120 participants who praised the role of AIDA-2020 as a forum for exchange across projects and collaborations. Activities in WP2 included the website, newsletter and videos on TA facilities.The PoC fund supported 3 projects targeted at applications of AIDA-2020 technologies outside of particle physics e.g. in medicine. Important steps towards commercialisation of results were made in the form of license agreements and the founding of a spin-off company. WP3 delivered software tools, which are being integrated into and routinely used in experiments running today e.g. a new geometry package suitable for vectorised computing. Further developments include packages for alignment corrections and the sophisticated Pandora particle flow algorithms. In WP4 the two main deliverables consisted in complex and highly integrated CMOS readout chips for new instrumentation: a 65nm chip for the pixel detectors developed in WP6 and WP7 for the LHC upgrade and a 130nm chip for gaseous detectors (WP13) and calorimeters (WP14). In WP5, the Trigger-Timing Logic Unit for detector tests in high-energy particle beams was developed and can be used to synchronise detectors which have different timing and triggering structures. Data acquisition and quality monitoring software have undergone significant development. The DAQ system has already been used for detector prototypes for a future Linear Collider and for detectors for the LHC upgrade. The activities of WP6 focused on hybrid detectors and monolithic CMOS devices. The excellent performance of the monolithic prototypes before and after irradiation, and the cost effectiveness of their fabrication cycle, consolidated this approach. Industrialization and system issues, related to detector assembly and deployment,were also addressed. WP7 optimised the sensors for the silicon-based vertexing and tracking systems, using planar and 3D diodes or low gain avalanche detector technologies. The focus moved towards the characterization of hybrid pixel sensors, for which radiation-tolerance were successfully assessed. The activities of WP8 were embedded in the Neutrino Platform at CERN. Key technologies for purity monitoring, photo-detection, very high voltage supply, charge readout, associated cryogenic front-end electronics and DAQ were developed and tested. Many of these developments were integrated and conducted in a large prototype detector recording cosmic ray data in 2017. In WP9, standard miniaturized hydraulic connection technologies were defined to allow for rapid prototyping, extreme minimization, and long-term reliability under high pressure and radiation doses. A state-of-the-art testing facility for boiling flows of CO2 in mini- and micro-channels is ready for exploitation at CERN and precision test stands for ventilation and vibration tests were set up at Oxford. The TA programme was organised in WP10, WP11 and WP12 for test beams, irradiation and characterization facilities. All facilities provided support to users in some cases exceeding the target access units, thus demonstrating the demand from the community. In WP13, tools to produce and characterise resistive plate chambers and micro-pattern gas detectors were developed. Novel architectures and technological tools, in particular in the field of dedicated readout electronics were developed. Environmentally friendly gas mixtures were explored to minimise the global warming impact of these detectors. WP14 developed calorimeter systems based on silicon or scintillator and test infrastructures for advanced optical materials have been commissioned and used. Common beam tests of CMS and CALICE calorimeter prototypes highlight the fruitful exchange between LHC and Liner Collider targeted developments. The demonstration of an assembly chain for silicon-based calorimeter elements was achieved. As part of WP15, a new version of EUDET-type pixel telescope was constructed and installed at CERN, and a high-resolution silicon strip telescope was commissioned at DESY. A new gas system and a new dose monitoring system were installed at CERN GIF++ and the upgrades foreseen for irradiation facilities at CERN, Birmingham and Ljubljana were completed. A new beam line was installed at Frascati and a photon tagging system was prepared. Results from all these activities have not only been documented in Milestone and Deliverable reports, but also found their way into numerous conferences and publications in refereed journals with world-wide audiences, to an extent exceeding by far the original targets of the project.
Recently the upgrades of LHC experiments, conceived to cope with unprecedented demands of data rates, radiation hardness and timing precision, have taken shape. They not only maintain the performances under much harsher conditions, but improve them and thus open up new potential for physics discoveries.This becomes possible through visionary concepts and novel technologies, for which AIDA-2020 activities have been crucial e.g. for establishing radiation-hard sensor technologies and readout electronics, for preparing the first implementation of highly granular calorimeter concepts and by providing test infrastructures and software tools that keep pace with the ambitious demands. AIDA-2020 was a unique framework to unfold such synergies and coordinate the research on common needs of the field as a whole.The impact on the competitiveness of European detector science is evidenced by the leading roles of European representatives in many global projects.The socio-economic impact of AIDA-2020 rests on 2 pillars. Particle physics is particularly strong in pre-procurement R&D for series production, as required for big accelerator projects. Industrial partners then capitalise on the acquired know-how for applications targeting other markets. With dedicated Academia-Industry events, AIDA-2020 proactively reached out to open up further fields, for example in non-destructive testing, for a fruitful transfer of particle detector technologies to meet the growing demands of industry. AIDA-2020 also supported projects developing applications beyond particle physics together with industry. These projects realized the knowledge transfer to applications via license agreements and spin-offs.