123186514
DEPFET sensor design using an experimental 3d device simulator
A DEPFET sensor array element with rectangularly shaped channel geometry is simulated and optimized using an experimental three-dimensional (3d) device simulator. Due to the relatively large detector volume, the highly refined discretization necessary in MOS channels and the existence of floating potential regions within the DEPFET, the simulation is challenging especially in three dimensions. The results give valuable insight into all operation stages. Charge collection is in the focus here but also Read and Clear operation of the DEPFET are considered in order to evaluate the response of the device to a signal charge. The results are used to design the next DEPFET prototypes for ILC. The numerical features of the experimental 3d code are briefly discussed.
108645383
The ATLAS Silicon Pixel Sensors
Abstract Prototype sensors for the ATLAS silicon pixel detector have been developed. The design of the sensors is guided by the need to operate them in the severe LHC radiation environment at up to several hundred volts while maintaining a good signal-to-noise ratio, small cell size, and minimal multiple scattering. The ability to be operated under full bias for electrical characterization prior to attachment of the readout integrated circuit electronics is also desired.
19809846
Development of Fast High-Resolution Muon Drift-Tube Detectors for High Counting Rates
Abstract Pressurized drift-tube chambers are efficient detectors for high-precision tracking over large areas. The Monitored Drift-Tube (MDT) chambers of the muon spectrometer of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) reach a spatial resolution of 35 μ m and almost 100% tracking efficiency with 6 layers of 30 mm diameter drift tubes operated with an Ar:CO 2 (93:7) gas mixture at 3 bar and a gas gain of 20 000. The ATLAS MDT chambers are designed to cope with background counting rates due to neutrons and γ rays of up to about 300 kHz per tube which will be exceeded for LHC luminosities larger than the design value of 10 34  cm −1  s −1 . Decreasing the drift-tube diameter to 15 mm while keeping the other parameters, including the gas gain, unchanged reduces the maximum drift time from about 700 to 200 ns and the drift-tube occupancy by a factor of 7. New drift-tube chambers for the endcap regions of the ATLAS muon spectrometer have been designed. A prototype chamber consisting of 12 times 8 layers of 15 mm diameter drift tubes of 1 m length has been constructed with a sense wire positioning accuracy of 20 μ m . The 15 mm diameter drift-tubes have been tested with cosmic rays in the Gamma Irradiation Facility at CERN at γ counting rates of up to 1.85 MHz.
34283775
Tracking and level-1 triggering in the forward region of the ATLAS muon spectrometer at sLHC
In the endcap region of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer (η  >  1) precision tracking and Level-1 triggering are performed by different types of chambers. Monitored Drift Tube chambers (MDT) and Cathode Strip Chambers (CSC) are used for precision tracking, while Thin Gap Chambers (TGC) form the Level-1 muon trigger, selecting muons with high transverse momentum (pT). When by 2018 the LHC peak luminosity of 1034 cm−2s−1 will be increased by a factor of ~ 2 and by another factor of ~ 2–2.5 in about a decade from now (``SLHC''), an improvement of both systems, precision tracking and Level-1 triggering, will become mandatory in order to cope with the high rate of uncorrelated background hits (``cavern background'') and to stay below the maximum trigger rate for the muon system, which is in the range of 10–20 % of the 100 kHz rate, allowed for ATLAS. For the Level-1 trigger of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer this means a stronger suppression of sub-threshold muons in the high-pT trigger as well as a better rejection of tracks not coming from the primary interaction point. Both requirements, however, can only be fulfilled if spatial resolution and angular pointing accuracy of the trigger chambers, in particular of those in the Inner Station of the endcap, are improved by a large factor. This calls for a complete replacement of the currrently used TGC chambers by a new type of trigger chambers with better performance. In parallel, the precision tracking chambers must be replaced by chambers with higher rate capability to be able to cope with the intense cavern background. In this article we present concepts to decisively improve the Level-1 trigger with newly developed trigger chambers, being characterized by excellent spatial resolution, good time resolution and sufficiently short latency. We also present new types of precision chambers, designed to maintain excellent tracking efficiency and spatial resolution in the presence of high levels of uncorrelated background hits, as generated by γ and neutron conversions.
195868697
Irradiation tests of double-sided silicon strip detectors with a special guard ring structure
The results of the first irradiation tests of newly designed silicon microstrip detectors performed with 21 MeV protons at the Max-Planck-Institut in Heidelberg are presented. The detectors were developed and produced by the semiconductor laboratory of the Max-Planck-Institut in Munich. Novel guard ring structures allow operation of the detectors at voltages exceeding 300 V.
73653251
Imaging performance of a DEPFET pixel Bioscope system in Tritium autoradiography
Abstract A Bioscope system based on a 64 × 64 -matrix of DEPFET pixels has been developed for real-time digital autoradiography in biomedical applications. It provides very good energy and spatial resolution at the same time. The DEPFET pixel cells consist of p -channel JFETs integrated into the high-ohmic n -silicon substrate. This leads to a very low noise performance at room temperature. Two dedicated ASIC chips have been developed for steering and readout of the pixel matrix. The measured system noise of ( 69 ± 4 ) e - at 35 ∘ C is mostly due to sensor leakage current and can be largely reduced by cooling or a faster readout. The spatial resolution is examined by measurements with a laser as well as with a dedicated test chart and is determined to be ( 6.7 ± 0.7 ) μ m for 6 keV-X-rays and 4.3 ± 0.8 μ m for 22 keV-X-rays. The measurements are compared to simulation results with different reconstruction algorithms. Due to the thin entrance window at the detector backside and the low noise performance, a detection of low-energy β -emitters such as 3H is possible. Measurements with 3H-labeled biological samples were taken. The ability of the DEPFET pixel Bioscope to separate different radiolabels in the same sample is demonstrated by a measurement with 3H and 14C.
55147901
Light stringy states
A bstractWe carefully study the spectrum of open strings localized at the intersections of D6-branes and identify the lowest massive ‘twisted’ states and their vertex operators, paying particular attention to the signs of the intersection angles. We argue that the masses of the lightest states scale as $ M_{\theta }^2 \approx \theta M_s^2 $ and can thus be parametrically smaller than the string scale. Relying on previous analyses, we compute scattering amplitudes of massless ‘twisted’ open strings and study their factorization, confirming the presence of the light massive states as sub-dominant poles in one of the channels.
37405387
Power supply system for the ATLAS muon spectrometer: design specifications and test
In this paper, the problem of the low-voltage (LV) and high-voltage (HV) power supply distribution of the monitored drift tubes (MDT) detector is addressed. Due to the high number of channels (1168 for low voltage and twice for high voltage) involved and to the dimension of the apparatus, these power supply systems are very complicated. Both systems are made of three different parts: a power generator, a system controller, and an active distributor. The first two parts will be localized in the cavern close to the experimental area, so they are subjected to standard environmental conditions. The third part (the active distributor) will be placed in the experimental area on the platforms just outside the detector, where the environmental conditions are more severe, due to the presence of magnetic field (about 0.08 T) and radiations. In the paper, we present the design specifications and tests for the power supply systems.
19280329
Sharpening the ATLAS muon trigger for high luminosity operation at the LHC
The outer shell of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC consists of a system of toroidal air-core magnets in order to allow for the precise measurement of the transverse momentum (pT) of muons, which in many physics channels are a signature of interesting physics processes [1], [2]. For the precise determination of the muon momentum Monitored Drift Tube chambers (MDT) with high position accuracy are used, while for the fast identification of muon tracks chambers with high time resolution are used, able to select muons above a predefined pT threshold for use in the first Level of the ATLAS triggering system (Level-1 trigger). When the LHC peak luminosity will be increased by a factor of 4–5 in about a decade from now (”SLHC”), an improvement of the selectivity of the ATLAS Level-1 triggering system will be mandatory in order to cope with the maximum allowed trigger rate of 100 kHz. For the Level-1 trigger of the ATLAS muon spectrometer this means an increase of the pT threshold for single muons. Due to the limited spatial resolution of the trigger chambers, however, the selectivity for tracks above ∼20 GeV/c is insufficient for an effective reduction of the Level-1 rate. We describe how the track coordinates measured in the MDT precision chambers can be used to decisively improve the selectivity for high momentum tracks. The resulting increase in latency will also be discussed.
3135633
Operation of the ATLAS muon drift-tube chambers at high background rates and in magnetic fields
In the ATLAS muon spectrometer, large drift-tube chambers are used for precision tracking. The chambers will be operated at a high neutron and /spl gamma/ background resulting in count rates of up to 500 Hz cm/sup -2/ corresponding to 300 kHz per tube. The spatial resolution of the drift tubes is degraded from 82 /spl mu/m without background to 108 /spl mu/m at 500 Hz cm/sup -2/ background count rate. Due to afterpulsing in the Ar/CO/sub 2/ gas mixture used in the drift tubes, ionizing radiation causes more than one hit in a tube within the maximum drift time of about 800 ns which is expected for magnetic field strengths around 1.2 T. In order to limit the count rate, the drift tubes are read out with an artificial dead time of 790 ns which causes an efficiency loss of 23% at a rate of 300 kHz per tube. The space-to-drift-time relationship of the tubes varies with background rate, temperature, and magnetic field strength. The mean magnetic field strength in a muon chamber is 0.4 T on the average, but may vary by up to 0.4 T within a chamber. The space-to-drift-time relationship must therefore be determined in short time intervals with an accuracy better than 20 /spl mu/m using muon tracks and applying corrections for measured magnetic field variations.
125139430
Measurement of the Reactions $\bar{P} P \to \bar{\Lambda} \Lambda$, $\bar{p} p \to \bar{\Lambda} \Sigma^0$ and $\bar{P} P \to \bar{\Lambda}$ (Missing Mass) at 6-{GeV}