Development of large linear silicon drift detectors for the STAR experiment at RHIC

Abstract

Large area linear Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD) are being developed for high energy and relativistic heavy ion collider experiments. SDDs have been proposed for the inner tracking detector in the STAR experiment at the BNL relativistic heavy ion collider to become operational in 1999. The Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) will consist of a three layer barrel structure composed of 216 individual detectors, each 6.3 × 6.3 cm 2. Prototypes, including one-way drift detectors (4.5 × 4.5 cm 2) and bi-directional drift detectors (6 × 6 cm 2) have been manufactured,and their properties have been studied. Design considerations, as well as test results, are presented in this article. Recent work has focused on minimizing the inactive guard structure area in order to optimize tracking efficiency. Particular attention is given to discussion of parameters that are sensitive to the reduced guard structure area, such as leakage current, maximum voltage and drift non-linearities.