SENSOR-PG group has the ambitious goal to empower a broad range of research fields with a new class of particle detectors able to deliver excellent time and position resolution with high efficiency, at a high rate and in harsh radiation environments. This ambitious goal is made possible by the implementation of several technological breakthroughs in the fabrication of the new particle detectors (LGAD, 3D) design.
The sensor group carries out electrical characterization of the sensors and test structures in the clean room located in the Physics Department of the Perugia University. Current-Voltage (I-V) and Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) measurements can be carried out at 20°C using a computer controlled parametric system. This is based on a semi-automatic probe station (MPI TSE2000 Semi-Automatic Prober), a Keithley K707 switching matrix (equipped with 7072 and 7174 semiconductor cards) and a three source measure units (Keithley K237, Keithley K2410 and one Keithley K236). Capacitance–Voltage (C–V) measurements were performed with a Keithley K82 system or an Agilent 4284A LCR meter. Clean room is an INFN laboratory and instrumentation are INFN property and can be used by the agreement between University and IOM-CNR.
Software: The program controlling the instruments to carry out the measurements on the detectors has been developed in Labview.
The research activity of the group is dedicated to the design, electrical characterization and simulation of different detectors. In this context two different topics are tackled:
- T1 Design, characterization and simulation of silicon detectors for High Energy Physics experiments. The research activity is focused on the characterization and simulation of surface and bulk radiation damage on silicon detectors, in particular to develop Low Gain Avalanche Diode (LGAD) in the framework of the PRIN project 4DInSiDe: Innovative Silicon Detectors for particle tracking in 4Dimensions. Measuring sensors and test structures before and after X-ray, neutron and proton irradiation the aim is to qualify the quality of the process to realize the sensors and to analyze the radiation damage of the detectors. From these measurements it is possible to extract some parameters which represent the main entries to describe the bulk and surface damage effects. Moreover these parameters can be used as input parameters to TCAD simulation tools for steady-state and/or AC analysis aimed at validating the model itself and for the analysis and optimization of different classes of detectors.
- T2 Design, characterization and simulation of 3D detectors on a hydrogenated amorphous silicon substrate. The aim of this activity is to manufacture detectors at low cost and large surfaces exploiting the possibility of deposition, using PECVD, on many materials, in particular on the top of any pixel read-out chip, avoiding expensive and problematic bonding techniques (i.e. bump bonding) for pixel detector applications.
