Hyperfast Silicon Detector Modules for Particle Detection

Advancement in detector technology is continuously ongoing as the needs of high-energy experimental facilities evolve. For example, upgrades are needed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as the luminosity is increased. Without advancing fast detector technology many future high energy physics experiments will be limited by the timing capabilities of current particle detector technology. One of the improvements currently being sought are silicon based detectors that offer fast timing resolution for direct particle detection that can process at high event rates. If a timing resolution on the order of 10s of picoseconds is achieved, this opens the possibility of using time-of-flight techniques to improve the precision of high-energy particle experiments.Our detector can intrinsically achieve a time resolution of 10s of picoseconds, however, the detector packaging needs a compact module design which integrates the detector with a custom fast signal amplifier, while preserving the detector’s fast resolution. Our proposed detector module is based on RMD’s silicon avalanche photodetector (APD) technology.During Phase I we will 1) optimize packaging and metallization techniques to better produce mesh APDs, 2) engineer a custom fast readout amplifier for the mesh APD and integrate with the detector to create a detector module, and 3) evaluate and characterize detector modules for electrical characteristics, gain and noise, and their ultra-fast timing performance as a function of radiation damage. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The general application for this detector technology is for charged particle detection. An optimized instrument could be used for human missions, satellites, and space exploration probes that need charged particle detection. Optical applications, such as LIDAR, in need of ultra-fast timing could benefit from the technology as well.