Performance of a novel charge sensor on the ion detection for the development of a high-pressure avalancheless ion TPC

Abstract

Within the project of building a time projection chamber using 100 kg of high-pressure 86SeF6 gas to search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay in the NvDEx collaboration, we are developing a CMOS charge sensor, named Topmetal-S, which is tailored for the experiment to detect the ions without gas amplification. In this work, the performance of the sensor is presented. The equivalent noise charge of the sensor is measured to be about 120 to 140 e- depending on the operating point, with the charge injection capacitance calibrated against external capacitors. The signal waveforms are investigated with various chip parameters and experimental settings. In addition to electrons, both negatively and positively charged ions could be detected, and their waveforms are studied using air and SF6 gases. Using the sensor, the mobility of negative ions in ambient air in the atmospheric pressure is measured to be 1.555 ± 0.038 cm2 · V-1 · s-1. Our study demonstrates that the Topmetal-S chip could be used as the ion detection charge sensor for the experiment. Further work is ongoing to reduce the noise of the sensor and to develop a small readout plane with tens of the sensors.