2020, Paolozzi, L., Cardarelli, R., Débieux, S., Favre, Y., Ferrère, D., Gonzalez-Sevilla, S., Iacobucci, G., Kaynak, M., Martinelli, F., Nessi, M., Rücker, H., Sanna, I., Sultan, D.M.S., Valerio, P., Zaffaroni, E.

SiGe BiCMOS technology can be used to produce ultra-fast, low-power silicon pixel sensors that provide state-of-the-art time resolution even without internal gain. The development of such sensors requires the identification and control of the main factors that may degrade the timing performance as well as the characterisation of the dependance of the sensor time resolution on the amplifier power consumption. Measurements with a 90Sr source of a prototype sensor produced in SG13G2 technology from IHP Microelectronics shows a time resolution of 140 ps at an amplifier current of 7 µA and 45 ps at a power consumption of 150 µA. The resolution on the measurement of the signal time-over-threshold, which is used to correct for time walk, is the main factor affecting the timing performance of this prototype. c 2020 CERN. Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of Sissa Medialab.

2022, Paolozzi, L., Munker, M., Cardella, R., Milanesio, M., Gurimskaya, Y., Martinelli, F., Picardi, A., Rücker, H., Trusch, A., Valerio, P., Cadoux, F., Cardarelli, R., Débieux, S., Favre, Y., Fenoglio, C.A., Ferrere, D., Gonzalez-Sevilla, S., Kotitsa, R., Magliocca, C., Moretti, T., Nessi, M., Pizarro Medina, A., Sabater Iglesias, J., Saidi, J., Vicente Barreto Pinto, M., Zambito, S., Iacobucci, G.

The Picosecond Avalanche Detector is a multi-junction silicon pixel detector based on a (NP)drift(NP)gain structure, devised to enable charged-particle tracking with high spatial resolution and picosecond time-stamp capability. It uses a continuous junction deep inside the sensor volume to amplify the primary charge produced by ionizing radiation in a thin absorption layer. The signal is then induced by the secondary charges moving inside a thicker drift region. A proof-of-concept monolithic prototype, consisting of a matrix of hexagonal pixels with 100 μm pitch, has been produced using the 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS process by IHP microelectronics. Measurements on probe station and with a 55Fe X-ray source show that the prototype is functional and displays avalanche gain up to a maximum electron gain of 23. A study of the avalanche characteristics, corroborated by TCAD simulations, indicates that space-charge effects due to the large primary charge produced by the conversion of X-rays from the ^55Fe source limits the effective gain.

2019, Paolozzi, L., Bandi, Y., Cardarelli, R., Débieux, S., Favre, Y., Ferrère, D., Forshaw, D., Hayakawa, D., Iacobucci, G., Kaynak, M., Miucci, A., Nessi, M., Ripiccini, E., Rücker, H., Valerio, P., Weber, M.

The TT-PET collaboration is developing a small animal TOF-PET scanner based on monolithic silicon pixel sensors in SiGe BiCMOS technology. The demonstrator chip, a small-scale version of the final detector ASIC, consists of a 03 × 1 pixel matrix integrated with the front-end, a 50 ps binning TDC and read out logic. The chip, thinned down to 100 µm and backside metallized, was operated at a voltage of 180 V. The tests on a beam line of minimum ionizing particles show a detection efficiency greater than 99.9% and a time resolution down to 110 ps. © 2019 CERN.

2019, Iacobucci, G., Cardarelli, R., Débieux, S., Di Bello, F.A., Favre, Y., Hayakawa, D., Kaynak, M., Nessi, M., Paolozzi, L., Rücker, H., Sultan, D.M.S., Valerio, P.

A monolithic pixelated silicon detector designed for high time resolution has been produced in the SG13G2 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology of IHP. This proof-of-concept chip contains hexagonal pixels of 65 µm and 130 µm side. The SiGe front-end electronics implemented provides an equivalent noise charge of 90 and 160 e- for a pixel capacitance of 70 and 220 fF, respectively, and a total time walk of less than 1 ns. Lab measurements with a 90Sr source show a time resolution of the order of 50 ps. This result is competitive with silicon technologies that integrate an avalanche gain mechanism. © 2019 CERN.

2022, Iacobucci, G., Zambito, S., Milanesio, M., Moretti, T., Saidi, J., Paolozzi, L., Munker, M., Cardella, R., Martinelli, F., Picardi, A., Rücker, H., Trusch, A., Valerio, P., Cadoux, F., Cardarelli, R., Débieux, S., Favre, Y., Fenoglio, C.A., Ferrere, D., Gonzalez-Sevilla, S., Gurimskaya, Y., Kotitsa, R., Magliocca, C., Nessi, M., Pizarro-Medina, A., Sabater Iglesias, J., Vicente Barreto Pinto, M.

The proof-of-concept prototype of the Picosecond Avalanche Detector, a multi-PN junction monolithic silicon detector with continuous gain layer deep in the sensor depleted region, was tested with a beam of 180 GeV pions at the CERN SPS. The prototype features low noise and fast SiGe BiCMOS frontend electronics and hexagonal pixels with 100 μm pitch. At a sensor bias voltage of 125 V, the detector provides full efficiency and average time resolution of 30, 25 and 17 ps in the overall pixel area for a power consumption of 0.4, 0.9 and 2.7 W/cm2, respectively. In this first prototype the time resolution depends significantly on the distance from the center of the pixel, varying at the highest power consumption measured between 13 ps at the center of the pixel and 25 ps in the inter-pixel region.