Newton RCUK-CONACYT Cost-efficient and radiation-tolerant pixel detectors for ionising radiation based on thin-film technology

Newton RCUK-CONACYT 基于薄膜技术的电离辐射经济高效且耐辐射的像素探测器

• 批准号: ST/P003052/1
• 负责人: Daniel Muenstermann
• 金额: $ 43.25万
• 依托单位: Lancaster University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FP003052%2F1
• 关键词: Newton; RCUK; CONACYT; Cost; efficient

Thin-film technology (TFT) has many advantages over classical techniques for single crystal growth and integrated circuit design and is today used in everyday appliances like computer/TV screens and solar cells. The idea of the proposed project is to put this technology to use in a new regime - large-area cost-efficient detectors for ionising radiation - and to ensure that Mexico is enabled to develop and produce such detectors for future high-profile projects in big science.Up to now, tracking detectors for high-energy physics have been manufactured using non-standard silicon planar technology on small wafers leading to high cost and limited availability. The LHC upgrades require large areas (100s-1000s m2) of radiation-tolerant semiconductor detectors. Cost-efficiency is the key to being able to instrument large areas and volumes with the available budget - while higher granularity of detectors is instrumental to improving the physics reach of the LHC experiments in view of the large number of pile-up interactions taking place (up to 400 at any given bunch crossing). Thin-film based detectors might be a way to accommodate both goals as the use of established low-cost, large-area processes known from solar cells is up to 2 orders of magnitude cheaper than state-of-the-art growth method for float-zone silicon wafers. As this approach for pixel detectors is novel, it is a unique opportunity for Mexico to establish world-leading expertise and lead future pixel detector construction efforts in big science projects such as the LHC upgrade.Beyond thin-film deposition methods to create substrates in the photovoltaic industry, thin-film technology is also used to create field-effect transistors, e.g. in TFT screens. Recent developments in thin-film transistors suggest that it might be possible to manufacture the first pre-amplifier stage necessary for a charge-collecting semiconductor detector in thin-film technology "on top" of the charge collection volume - which has been created by thin-film technology as well. The concept of in-pixel amplification has been first established in so-called HV-CMOS detectors and allows the use of very thin sensor layers (down to about 20 um), which is advantageous for material budget, production cost and radiation tolerance.The first step of this proposal is to design, produce, irradiate and characterise passive TFT-sensors that could replace today's planar silicon pixel sensors. In a second step, electronic circuits in thin-film technology will be studied and added on top of the pixels to amplify and possibly discriminate particle hits. The ultimate goal is to obtain monolithic active pixel sensors (MAPS). Base materials under investigation will be GaAs, GaN and c-SiTF.

薄膜技术（TFT）相对于单晶生长和集成电路设计的经典技术具有许多优势，目前已用于计算机/电视屏幕和太阳能电池等日常电器。拟议项目的想法是将这一技术用于一个新的领域-大面积、具有成本效益的电离辐射探测器-并确保墨西哥能够为未来大科学领域的高知名度项目开发和生产这种探测器。用于高能物理的跟踪探测器已经使用非小晶片上的标准硅平面技术导致高成本和有限的可用性。大型强子对撞机的升级需要大面积（100 - 1000平方米）的耐辐射半导体探测器。成本效率是能够在可用预算的情况下测量大面积和体积的关键-而更高粒度的探测器有助于提高LHC实验的物理范围，因为大量的堆积相互作用正在发生（在任何给定的束流交叉处高达400）。基于薄膜的检测器可能是一种适应这两个目标的方式，因为使用从太阳能电池已知的已建立的低成本、大面积工艺比用于浮区硅晶片的最新技术水平的生长方法便宜多达2个数量级。由于这种像素探测器的方法是新颖的，这对墨西哥来说是一个独特的机会，可以建立世界领先的专业知识，并在未来的大型科学项目（如LHC升级）中领导像素探测器的建设工作。除了薄膜沉积方法在光伏行业中制造基板外，薄膜技术还用于制造场效应晶体管，例如TFT屏幕。薄膜晶体管的最新发展表明，有可能在电荷收集体积的“顶部”制造薄膜技术中电荷收集半导体检测器所需的第一前置放大器级-该体积已通过薄膜技术创建。像素内放大的概念首先在所谓的HV-CMOS探测器中建立，并且允许使用非常薄的传感器层（低至约20 μ m），这对于材料预算、生产成本和辐射耐受性是有利的。在第二步中，将研究薄膜技术中的电子电路，并将其添加到像素顶部，以放大并可能区分粒子撞击。最终目标是获得单片有源像素传感器（MAPS）。正在研究的基础材料将是GaAs，GaN和c-SiTF。

项目成果

Towards GaAs thin-film tracking detectors

• DOI: 10.1088/1748-0221/16/09/p09012
• 发表时间: 2021-09-01
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF INSTRUMENTATION
• 影响因子: 1.3
• 作者: Rangel-Kuoppa, V. -T.;Ye, S.;Muenstermann, D.
• 通讯作者: Muenstermann, D.

Addendum for: Solar cell parameter accuracy improvement, via refinement of the Co-Content function. Part 1: theoretical analysis (2022 Eng. Res. Express 4 015022)

附录：通过改进 Co-Content 函数来提高太阳能电池参数精度。

• DOI: 10.1088/2631-8695/ace759
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Engineering Research Express
• 影响因子: 1.7
• 作者: Rangel-Kuoppa V