Radiation Hard Multi-chip Sensor to Module Integration for Monolithic and Hybrid Pixel Detectors

Abstract

In the pursuit of the high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the current Inner Detector of the ATLAS experiment will be completely replaced by a new all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk). MALTA, a Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (DMAPS) designed using Tower Semiconductor's 180 nm CMOS imaging technology, was developed to assess its suitability in ATLAS ITk and other high-energy physics experiments. This study demonstrates that the latest prototype of the MALTA family, MALTA2, achieves full efficiency and excellent timing resolution both before and after irradiation. This success is attributed to a combination of sensor design, front-end modifications, and the use of Czochralski substrates. Additionally, the research presents the architecture and performance of the MALTA telescope, emphasizing its outstanding spatial and track timing resolution. Furthermore, it demonstrates successful chip-to-chip data transmission without signal distortion in multi-chip MALTA modules. Lastly, the study explores the use of versatile coatings and embedding layers to enhance the durability and reliability of multi-chip modules.