Abstract

Owing to their intrinsic (geometry dependent) radiation hardness, 3D pixel sensors are promising candidates for the innermost tracking layers of the forthcoming experiment upgrades at the “Phase 2” High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) . To this purpose, extreme radiation hardness up to the expected maximum fluence of 2 × 1016 neq.cm−2 must come along with several technological improvements in a new generation of 3D pixels, i.e., increased pixel granularity (50 × 50 or 25 × 100 μ m2 cell size), thinner active region (∼ 100 μm), narrower columnar electrodes (∼ 5 μm diameter) with reduced inter-electrode spacing (∼ 30 μm), and very slim edges (∼ 100 μm). The fabrication of the first batch of these new 3D sensors was recently completed at FBK on Si-Si direct wafer bonded 6” substrates. Initial electrical test results, performed at wafer level on sensors and test structures, highlighted very promising performance, in good agreement with TCAD simulations: low leakage current (< 1 pA/column), intrinsic breakdown voltage of more than 150 V, capacitance of about 50 fF/column, thus assessing the validity of the design approach. A large variety of pixel sensors compatible with both existing (e.g., ATLAS FEI4 and CMS PSI46) and future (e.g., RD53) read-out chips were fabricated, that were also electrically tested on wafer using a temporary metal layer patterned as strips shorting rows of pixels together. This allowed a statistically significant distribution of the relevant electrical quantities to be obtained, thus gaining insight into the impact of process-induced defects. A few 3D strip test structures were irradiated with X-rays, showing inter-strip resistance of at least several GΩ even after 50 Mrad(Si) dose, thus proving the p-spray robustness. We present the most important design and technological aspects, and results obtained from the initial investigations.

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