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The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment will explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter in the region of high net baryonic densities. The matter at these extreme conditions will be produced and studied in heavy-ion collisions with a fixed target set-up.
The present work is dedicated to the main component of the CBM experiment - the Silicon Tracking System (STS). The STS comprises of 8 tracking stations with 1292 double sided silicon microstrip sensors. The STS has to enable the reconstruction of up to 1000 charged particle tracks per nucleus-nucleus interaction at the rate of up to 10 MHz, provide a momentum resolution of Δp/p =1%, and withstand the radiation load of up to 1 x 1014 neq/cm2 (neq — radiation dose of 1 MeV neutron equivalent). Self-triggering read-out electronics will be located on the periphery of the detecting planes, and connected to the sensors with low mass micro-cables.
During the R&D phase, as well as in the pre-series and series production phase, the characterization of the sensors, of the front-end electronics and of the complete detector modules has to be performed. It is evident that characterization of more than 1000 silicon microstrip sensors and later of complete detector modules is very time-consuming, and may even damage the objects if not performed carefully. One of the goals of this work was to develop a systematic procedure for the quality assurance for the double-sided silicon microstrip sensors. This includes static optical inspection and visual tests, passive electrical test (such as leakage current, bulk capacitance, inter-strip capacitance & resistances, bias resistance and coupling capacitance), radiation hardness and long-term stability. A strategy for the quality assurance of these sensors is presented, defining the various tests to be performed and the documentation of the results. The techniques and quality assurance criteria will be applied for the pre-series and series production.
With decreasing feature size and increase in functionality and structures, the classical mechanical probe approach for internal fault detection and functional testing faces increasing challenges. In the field of silicon based chips and sensors there is rarely any analysis on the topic of non-invasive or contact-less probing and characterization, despite the fact that the contact-less probing is becoming more and more important as the fabrication technologies become smaller and more susceptible to the parasitic impact of mechanical probes. The silicon micro-strip double sided sensors used in STS have a complex structure, such as 1024 metal electrodes, 2048 bias resistors, 2048 DC pads and 4098 AC pads for probing, several guard rings, and even more in the 6.2 cm x 6.2 cm prototype sensor. Photo-intrusive technique is the best solution for the characterization and investigation of crucial parameters related to the detector operation and its functionality. A photo-intrusive probing is a method in which a non-invasive pulsed laser of a desired wavelength is used to inject the photon into the bulk and resulting in electron-hole pairs (e-h). In a completely depleted silicon sensor the charge injected (or generated) by the pulsed laser beam could be detected as current and shall be used for characterization.
A non-invasive contact-less Laser Test System (LTS) was developed based on a pulsed laser to investigate properties of the silicon sensors. The set-up is able to inject charge locally and scan sensors(or detector modules) with a pulsed infra-red laser driven by a step motor. The LTS is designed to measure sensor response in an automatized procedure at several thousand positions across the sensor with focused infra-
red laser light (spot size = 12 μm , wavelength = 1060 nm). The duration (10 ns) and power (5 mW) of the laser pulses are selected such that the absorption of the laser light in the 300 μm thick silicon sensors produces a number of about 24000 electrons, which is similar to the charge created by the minimum ionizing particles (MIP) in these sensors. The set-up was used to developed characterization procedures to determine the charge sharing between strips, and to measure a qualitative uniformity of the sensor response over the whole active area. The prototype sensors which are tested with the set-up are small prototype sensors (256 strips, pitch = 50 μm on each side) and full-size detector modules (1024 strips/side and pitch = 58 μm). They are read-out using a self-triggering prototype read-out electronic ASIC called n-XYTER. Laser scans for amplitude response, charge sharing in the inter-strip region, and spot-size determination technique are reported. For the verification of the some design parameters, unique methods of determining coupling capacitance, and inter-strip capacitance have been developed. The modules were also tested with proton beams, and the charge sharing in the inter-strip region has been compared to the laser test results.