54028581
Recent developments on CMOS MAPS for the SuperB Silicon Vertex Tracker
Abstract In the design of the Silicon Vertex Tracker for the high luminosity SuperB collider, very challenging requirements are set by physics and background conditions on its innermost Layer0: small radius (about 1.5 cm), resolution of 10 – 15 μ m in both coordinates, low material budget 1 % X 0 , and the ability to withstand a background hit rate of several tens of MHz / cm 2 . Thanks to an intense R&D program the development of Deep NWell CMOS MAPS (with the ST Microelectronics 130 nm process) has reached a good level of maturity and allowed for the first time the implementation of thin CMOS sensors with similar functionalities as in hybrid pixels, such as pixel-level sparsification and fast time stamping. Further MAPS performance improvements are currently under investigation with two different approaches: the INMAPS CMOS process, featuring a quadruple well and a high resistivity substrate, and 3D CMOS MAPS, realized with vertical integration technology. In both cases specific features of the processes chosen can improve charge collection efficiency, with respect to a standard DNW MAPS design, and allow to implement a more complex in-pixel logic in order to develop a faster readout architecture. Prototypes of MAPS matrix, suitable for application in the SuperB Layer0, have been realized with the INMAPS 180 nm process and the 130 nm Chartered/Tezzaron 3D process and results of their characterization will be presented in this paper.
109274131
The EDRO Board Connected to the Associative Memory: a “Baby” FastTracKer Processor for the ATLAS Experiment
Abstract The FastTracKer (FTK), a hardware dedicated processor, performs fast and precise online full track reconstruction at the ATLAS experiment, within an average latency of few dozens of microseconds. Before production of the ﬁnal system for tracking in high-occupancy conditions with the best of available technology, we plan to use existing prototypes of the FTK hardware to exercise its functions in the ATLAS environment. We describe the “baby FTK”, consisting of a few hardware elements implementing the ﬁrst stages of the system, and discuss our plans to grow the system into a full-functionality FTK “vertical slice” covering a small projective wedge of the detector. We report on the performances and structure of the “baby FTK”, including the pixel/strip hit clustering (clustering mezzanine), hit organization and distribution (EDRO) and the Associative Memory pattern recognition function. We describe brieﬂy also the possible future evolution including the addition of the Track Fitter.
120117699
Latest results of the R&D on CMOS MAPS for the Layer0 of the SuperB SVT
Physics and high background conditions set very challenging requirements on readout speed, material budget and resolution for the innermost layer of the SuperB Silicon Vertex Tracker operated at the full luminosity. Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) are very appealing in this application since the thin sensitive region allows grinding the substrate to tens of microns. Deep N-Well MAPS, developed in the ST 130 nm CMOS technology, achieved in-pixel sparsification and fast time stamping. Further improvements are being explored with an intense R&D program, including both vertical integration and 2D MAPS with the INMAPS quadruple well. We present the results of the characterization with IR laser, radioactive sources and beam of several chips produced with the 3D (Chartered/Tezzaron) process. We have also studied prototypes exploiting the features of the quadruple well and the high resistivity epitaxial layer of the INMAPS 180 nm process. Promising results from an irradiation campaign with neutrons on small matrices and other test-structures, as well as the response of the sensors to high energy charged tracks are presented.
16866620
Analysis of charmonium production at fixed-target experiments in the NRQCD approach
We present an analysis of the existing data on charmonium hadro-production based on non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) calculations at the next-to-leading order (NLO). All the data on J/psi and psi' production in fixed-target experiments and on pp collisions at low energy are included. We find that the amount of color octet contribution needed to describe the data is about 1/10 of that found at the Tevatron.
111127502
The front-end chip of the SuperB SVT detector
Abstract The asymmetric e + e − collider SuperB is designed to deliver a high luminosity, greater than 10 36 cm − 2 s − 1 , with moderate beam currents and a reduced center of mass boost with respect to earlier B-Factories. The innermost detector is the Silicon Vertex Tracker which is made of 5 layers of double sided silicon strip sensors plus a layer 0, that can be equipped with short striplets detectors in a first phase of the experiment. In order to achieve an overall track reconstruction efficiency above 98% it is crucial to optimize both analog and digital readout circuits. The readout architecture being developed for the front-end chips will be able to cope with the very high rates expected in the first layer. The digital readout will be optimized to be fully efficient for hit rates up to 2 MHz/strip, including large margins on the maximum expected background rates, but can potentially accommodate higher rates with a proper tuning of the buffer depth. The readout is based on a triggered architecture where each of the 128 strip channel is provided with a dedicated digital buffer. Each buffer collects the digitized charge information by means of a 4-bit TOT, storing it in conjunction with the related time stamp. The depth of buffers was dimensioned considering the expected trigger latency and hit rate including suitable safety margins. Every buffer is connected to a highly parallelized circuit handling the trigger logic, rejecting expired data in the buffers and channeling the parallel stream of triggered hits to the common output of the chip. The presented architecture has been modeled by HDL language and investigated with a Monte Carlo hit generator emulating the analog front-end behavior. The simulations showed that even applying the highest stressing conditions, about 2 MHz per strip, the efficiency of the digital readout remained above 99.8%.
22317714
2D and 3D thin pixel technologies for the Layer0 of the SuperB Silicon Vertex Tracker
The high luminosity asymmetric e+e− collider SuperB, recently approved by the Italian Government, is designed to deliver a luminosity greater than 1036cm−2s−1 with moderate beam currents and a reduced center of mass boost with respect to earlier B-Factories. An improved vertex resolution is required for precise time-dependent measurements and the SuperB Silicon Vertex Tracker will be equipped with an innermost layer of small radius (about 1.5 cm), resolution of 10 µm in both coordinates, low material budget (&#60; 1% X0), and able to withstand a hit background rate of several tens of MHz/cm2. The ambitious goal of designing a thin pixel device matching these stringent requirements is being pursued with specific R&D programs on different technologies: CMOS MAPS, pixel sensors in vertical integration technology and hybrid pixels with small pitch and reduced material budget. The latest results on the characterization of the various pixel devices realized for the SuperB Layer0 will be presented.
118708844
On the Consistency of Constraints in Matter Field Theories
We consider how the principles of causality and equivalence restrict the background in which matter field theories are defined; those constraints develop in restrictions for these matter field theories: the simplest matter field theory aside, all other less simple matter field theories are too complex therefore resulting to be inconsistent in general instances.
119264146
Causal propagation for ELKO fields
We shall consider the general problem of causal propagation for spinor fields, focus attention in particular on the case constituted by ELKO fields and will show that the problem of causal propagation for ELKO fields is always solvable.
123600595
CONFORMAL GRAVITY AND GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
We consider monochromatic, plane gravitational waves in a conformally invariant theory of general relativity. We show that the simple, standard ansatz for the metric, usually that which is taken for the linearized theory of these waves, is reducible to the metric of Minkowski spacetime via a sequence of conformal and coordinate transformations. This implies that we have in fact, exact plane wave solutions. However they are simply coordinate/conformal artifacts. As a consequence, they carry no energy.
119158982
LEPTONIC ELECTROWEAK SPIN-TORSION INTERACTIONS
In this paper we consider the most general field equations for a system of two fermions of which one single-handed, showing that the spin-torsion interactions among these spinors have a structure identical to that of the electroweak forces among leptons; possible extensions are discussed.
118538840
Conformal gravity with electrodynamics for fermion fields and their symmetry breaking mechanism
In this paper, we consider an axial torsion to build metric-compatible connections in conformal gravity, with gauge potentials; the geometric background is filled with Dirac spinors: scalar fields with suitable potentials are added eventually. The system of field equations is worked out to have torsional effects converted into spinorial self-interactions: the massless spinors display self-interactions of a specific form that gives them the features they have in the non-conformal theory but with the additional character of renormalizability, and the mechanisms of generation of mass and cosmological constants become dynamical. As a final step we will address the cosmological constant problem and the coincidence issue.