A 1-μW radiation-hard front-end in a 0.18-μm CMOS process for the MALTA2 monolithic sensor

Piro, F. et al. (2022) A 1-μW radiation-hard front-end in a 0.18-μm CMOS process for the MALTA2 monolithic sensor. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 69(6), pp. 1299-1309. (doi: 10.1109/tns.2022.3170729)

Abstract

In this article, a low-power, radiation-hard front-end circuit for monolithic pixel sensors, designed to meet the requirements of low noise and low pixel-to-pixel variability, the key features to achieve high detection efficiencies, is presented. The sensor features a small collection electrode to achieve a small capacitance (<5 fF) and allows full CMOS in-pixel circuitry. The circuit is implemented in the 180-nm CMOS imaging technology from the TowerJazz foundry and integrated into the MALTA2 chip, which is part of a development that targets the specifications of the outer pixel layer of the ATLAS Inner Tracker upgrade at the LHC. One of the main challenges for monolithic sensors is a radiation hardness up to 1015 1-MeV neq/cm2 non-ionizing energy loss (NIEL) and 80 Mrad total ionizing dose (TID) required for this application. Tests up to 3⋅1015 1-MeV neq/cm2 and 100 Mrad were performed on the MALTA2 sensor and front-end circuit, which still show good performance even after these levels of irradiation, promising for even more demanding applications such as the future experiments at the high-luminosity large hadron collider (HL-LHC).

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the European Unions Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under Grant 675587 and Grant 101004761.
• Keywords: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nuclear Energy and Engineering, Nuclear and High Energy Physics
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Buttar, Professor Craig
• Authors: Piro, F., Allport, P., Asensi, I., Berdalovic, I., Bortoletto, D., Buttar, C., Cardella, R., Charbon, E., Dachs, F., Dao, V., Dobrijevic, D., Dyndal, M., Flores, L., Freeman, P., Gabrielli, A., Gonella, L., Kugathasan, T., Le Blanc, M., Oyulmaz, K., Pernegger, H., Riedler, P., Van Rijnbach, M., Sandaker, H., Sharma, A., Solans, C., Snoeys, W., Suligoj, T., Torres, J., and Worm, S.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
• Publisher: IEEE
• ISSN: 0018-9499
• ISSN (Online): 1558-1578
• Published Online: 27 April 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © The Author(s) 2022
• First Published: First published in IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 69(6): 1299-1309
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons license