Status and overview of development of the silicon pixel detector for the PHENIX experiment at the BNL RHIC

Abstract

We have developed a silicon pixel detector to enhance the physics capabilities of the PHENIX experiment. This detector, consisting of two layers of sensors, will be installed around the beam pipe at the collision point and covers a pseudo-rapidity of |η| < 1.2 and an azimuth angle of |ϕ| ∼ 2π. The detector uses 200 μm thick silicon sensors and readout chips developed for the ALICE experiment. In order to meet the PHENIX DAQ readout requirements, it is necessary to read out 4 readout chips in parallel. The physics goals of PHENIX require that radiation thickness of the detector be minimized. To meet these criteria, the detector has been designed and developed. In this paper, we report the current status of the development, especially the development of the low-mass readout bus and the front-end readout electronics.