Description du projet
De nouveaux détecteurs à pixels au silicium avec une résolution temporelle de l’ordre de la picoseconde
L’usage des détecteurs au silicium est très répandu dans les expériences de physique des particules. Le projet MONOLITH, financé par l’UE, prévoit de concevoir un nouveau capteur à pixels au silicium capable de détecter des particules à l’échelle de la picoseconde avec une résolution spatiale élevée. Ce nouveau capteur combinera des procédés d’assemblage simplifiés et des coûts de production réduits grâce aux procédés CMOS standard. Cette technologie innovante fera office d’instrument révolutionnaire pour les futures expériences de physique nucléaire, de physique des particules et de physique spatiale. Elle pourrait également avoir un impact dans un certain nombre d’autres domaines comme les systèmes lidar à haute précision, les scanners TEP à temps de vol et l’imagerie biologique.
Objectif
Particle-physics, space research and several other fields of basic and applied science necessitate the production of thin sensors capable to provide excellent position and time resolution at the same time.
The diode structure of present silicon pixel sensors strongly penalises the enormous potential of silicon-based time measurement: the ~30 ps intrinsic limit of diodes was already reached in sensors with internal gain with pad sizes of 1 mm2. Therefore, new ideas are needed to improve by another order of magnitude and reach the picosecond level.
This project introduces a novel silicon-sensor structure devised to overcome the intrinsic limits of present sensors and simultaneously provide picosecond timing and high spatial resolution in a monolithic implementation. This goal is achieved by the introduction of a fully depleted multi-junction. The remarkable performance of this new sensor, combined with the simplified assembly process and reduced production cost offered by the monolithic implementation in standard CMOS processes, represent the required breakthrough.
In addition to the novel multi-junction sensor, the cornerstones of the project are the low-noise very-fast SiGe HBT frontend and the patented TDC with robust synchronisation method that the PI has already produced in preliminary versions.
The monolithic detector proposed here will offer a sustainable solution for the next generation of experiments at hadron colliders, in nuclear physics and for space-borne experiments in cosmic-ray physics and solar physics. Besides the primary goal of basic science, it will represent an extraordinary enabling technology for the large spectrum of high-tech applications that benefits of picosecond-level Time-Of-Flight measurements. The innovative monolithic detector introduced here will also offer a starting point for further progress in the field of light detection.
European industrial partners have been contacted for commercial exploitation of the detector.
Champ scientifique
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsparticle accelerator
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomygalactic astronomysolar physics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesnuclear physics
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrymetalloids
Programme(s)
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantInstitution d’accueil
1211 Geneve
Suisse