APiX: a Geiger-mode Avalanche Digital Sensor for Particle Detection
Résumé
In this paper, we present a two-layered silicon sensor working in Geiger-mode avalanche regime and designed for charged particle detection. Each position-sensitive element is comprised of two vertically aligned pixels, exploiting the coincidence between two simultaneous avalanche events to discriminate between particle triggers and dark counts. This approach potentially offers several advantages. First, a low material budget can be achieved thanks to the thinning of the detector down to a few tens of microns (e.g. 50 μm) as the avalanche starts in a shallow region just a few microns deep. Operation in a regime of quenched avalanche allows for an excellent timing resolution and provides an internal gain that makes a front-end amplification stage unnecessary, thus dramatically reducing the power consumption. Fine detector segmentation is possible as the (horizontal) inter-pixel cross-talk in the detection plane can be reduced to a comfortable level while the vertical cross-talk is totally eliminated using a metal light-shield layer. The detector is also insensitive to background light. A number of applications could benefit from a detector with these characteristics, including particle tracking and vertex reconstruction in particle physics experiments at accelerators and in space, as well as ionizing radiation imaging in nuclear medicine and life-sciences.
Mots clés
Detectors
Prototypes
IP networks
Micrometers
Imaging
Silicon
Image reconstruction
avalanche photodiodes
elemental semiconductors
nuclear electronics
photodetectors
position sensitive particle detectors
readout electronics
silicon radiation detectors
Geiger-mode avalanche digital sensor
silicon sensor
charged particle detection
position-sensitive element
vertically aligned pixels
simultaneous avalanche events
particle triggers
dark counts
low material budget
shallow region
quenched avalanche
fine detector segmentation
inter-pixel cross-talk
detection plane
vertical cross-talk
metal light-shield layer
particle tracking
particle physics experiments
timing resolution