Optical links in collider experiments provide the advantage of high speed data transmission with low mass fibers over a distance of a few hundred meters. The radiation resistances of Ge-doped multi-mode fibers are investigated in ionizing dose with Co-60 Gamma-ray. Depending on the doping substances and fabrication technologies, the radiation induced attenuation (RIA) differs very much. Fiber...
3D silicon sensors have demonstrated excellent radiation hardness since their first deployment in the Insertable B Layer (IBL) at ATLAS, paving the way for their integration into the innermost layers of ATLAS and CMS for the high luminosity upgrade. Besides being extremely radiation-hard, they also promise excellent timing performance. A timing resolution of about 30 ps has been reported for...
Abstract: With the increasing demand for proton therapy and heavy-ion therapy, 3D sensor technologies with effective detection volumes comparable to cell sizes have become a key research focus. This paper proposes a novel design method for a bowl-shaped 3D sensor and conducts simulation studies on their performance. The device structure designed for proton therapy consists of an array of three...
Radiation hard LGAD as a MTD detectors requires for the 4D tracking with the process of assigning a space and a time coordinate to a hit -~10-30 μm position and ~10-30 ps time resolution in the CMS phase 2 of the experiment for HL-LHC upgrade and FCC colliders. To improve the performance of the heavily irradiated LGAD detectors up to the mixed fluence of 1 x 1017 neq./cm2 in terms of high fill...
Radiation hard n-Fz Double Sided Silicon Microstrip Detectors are used in the Silicon Tracker for the detection of two-dimensional position and energy loss measurement of the incident protons in the R3B experiment at FAIR, Darmstadt, Germany.
For the development of the detectors in the R3B Silicon Tracker, the macroscopic analysis is conducted on the available test structure of n-Fz Double...
Abstract: We propose a novel 3D detector with a concentric ring electrode configuration. Multiple columnar collecting electrodes are evenly distributed in the annular region between the central columnar electrode and the outermost annular trench electrode. The small potential saddle points generated between adjacent collection electrodes naturally isolate the signal. The annular trench...
Thunderclouds are known to emit minute-long gamma-ray bursts, commonly referred to as gamma-ray glows. These emissions are believed to originate from bremsstrahlung produced by high-energy electrons accelerated within the clouds. We conducted winter lightning observations in a mountainous area of Niigata, Japan, where thunderclouds are easily observable. Our detection system comprises various...
This paper presents the design and the test results of a 25 Gbps VCSEL driving ASIC fabricated in a 55 nm CMOS technology for detector front-end readout. This VCSEL driving ASIC is composed of an input equalizer stage, a pre-driver stage and a novel output driver stage. The input equalizer stage adopts a 5-step CTLE structure to compensate the high frequency loss at the PCB traces, bonding...
The LHC-ATLAS experiment have been operated since 2010, aiming for new particle searches, and precision measurements of the Higgs boson properties. The SemiConductor Tracker (SCT) is one of the most important subsystems in the ATLAS detector, which plays a key role in tracking and pT measurement for charged particles. Since SCT is located 30-50 cm from the beam pipe, it has been exposed to a...
Physicists around the world are looking for the high performance of position sensitive and advanced design detectors, which can be used in harsh radiation environment at Future Circular collider (FCC). According to RD50 collaboration, one of the leading candidates for the detector material is p-MCz silicon for the bulk. In this work, we have proposed an advanced four deep trap level proton...
Nuclotron-based ion collider facility (NICA) is a new accelerator complex designed at the joint institute for nuclear research (Dubna, Russia) to study properties of dense baryonic matter. The multi-purpose detector (MPD) is one of three detectors in NICA and it has been designed as a 4𝜋 spectrometer capable of detecting of charged hadrons, electrons and photons in heavy-ion collisions at high...
The SOIPIX (Silicon-On-Insulator PIXel) detector is a unique monolithic structure imaging device under development by the SOIPIX group, led by the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK).
We, the detector team at the KEK Photon Factory (PF), have developed an X-ray camera [1] using the INTPIX4NA SOIPIX detector [2].
The INTPIX4NA has a sensitive area of 14.1 x 8.7 mm^2, with...
Frequency synthesizers are widely used in many applications. For instance, particle physics experiments such as the LHC operate at a 40 MHz system clock, while the proposed CEPC is expected to use 43.3 MHz. To accommodate such diverse requirements, a wide-range frequency synthesizer with flexible reference and synthesized clocks is essential. We present a phase-locked loop (PLL) based on a...
Photon-counting computed tomography (PCCT) has recently emerged as the next-generation CT technology, offering multi-energy and low-dose imaging capabilities that provides significant advantages over conventional energy-integrating detectors. Especially, PCCT using CdTe-based semiconductor detectors has already entered clinical use.
However, several practical limitations remain. For instance,...
We present the development and application of large-area silicon strip detectors for the ELARK experiment at RAON. The sensors, fabricated on 6-inch high-resistivity n-type wafers with a thickness of 500 μm, were used as ΔE detectors in a ΔE–E particle identification system. I–V measurements confirmed low leakage current and stable operation. Laboratory tests using Am-241 and Gd-148 alpha...
This paper presents an evaluation of the response and imaging performance of CITIUS - a high-speed X-ray detector developed for use at SPring-8 and SPring-8-II - when applied to heavy charged particles and neutrons. In the detection of heavy charged particles, imaging accuracy is primarily determined by the diffusion and drift of charges generated in the active layer, as well as the extent of...
Pioneering R&D in HVCMOS pixel sensors at the advanced 55 nm process, the COFFEE series prototypes are currently being developed for the Upstream Pixel tracker (UP) in the LHCb Upgrade II. COFFEE3, the latest prototype with two distinct readout architecture, was design and fabricated in 2025. Though featuring a small-scale prototype (3×4 mm2), COFFEE3 is designed to match the final full-scale...
Polarization observations of X-rays and γ-rays are an important method to investigate the radiation mechanisms of high-energy astrophysical sources. However, such observations are difficult to perform, and there are few observational examples. CMOS image sensors are detectors with superior spatial resolution compared to CCDs. CMOS sensors are sensitive to optical light through X-rays, but have...
The Medipix collaboration was formed in the 1990s at CERN with the intention of adapting hybrid pixel detector technology to fields outside of high energy physics. Since then there have been four generations of the Medipix detector, and four generations of the closely related Timepix detector. Silicon is a common sensor material for detecting X-rays in the 5-30 keV energy range. The response...
X-ray diffraction (XRD) is a fundamental tool for non-destructive analysis of crystalline materials. In this work, we present a novel method that exploits the advanced features of the newly developed hybrid pixel detector Timepix4 to achieve both time- and spatially-resolved XRD.
Timepix4, developed by the Medipix collaboration, offers a sensitive area of 7 cm² composed of 512×448 pixels,...
Towards high-luminosity operation of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), starting in 2030, the inner detector of the ATLAS detector will be replaced by a fully-silicon-based inner tracker (ITk). The outer part of the ITk detector consists of $\sim$ 20,000 strip sensors with glued-on hybrids carrying the front-end electronics necessary for readout. A production version of the sensor (ATLAS18...
All-sky observations of MeV gamma rays are expected to play a crucial role in solving unresolved questions in high-energy astrophysics, such as the emission mechanisms of gamma-ray bursts and blazars. To that end, we propose an MeV gamma-ray mission concept, AMEGO-X. The gamma-ray detector onboard AMEGO-X consists of a silicon tracker and a CsI calorimeter. The silicon tracker is composed of...
UV photodetectors are essential tools in the detection and quantification of UV radiation for a wide array of scientific and practical uses. These applications include disinfection and sterilization, ozone level monitoring, water purification, secure communications system and marine navigation. Thus, UV photodetectors play a key role in a variety of systems spanning health, defense,...
Gain variations of detector pixels in cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) may lead to streaking artifacts in sinogram and ring artifacts in reconstructed CBCT images. Such gain variations can be mainly caused by inconsistent response of detector pixels owing to their defects and aging. This study presents an effective method to identify and correct streaking artifacts in sinogram using a...
The High-Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), foreseen for 2030, requires the replacement of the ATLAS Inner Detector with a new all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk). Radiation-hard $n^+$-in-$p$ micro-strip sensors developed for use in the ITk will be exposed to a total radiation fluence of up to $\Phi_{eq} = 1.6 \times 10^{15}$ 1 MeV $n_{eq}/cm^2$ and a total ionizing dose...
ATLAS is currently preparing for the HL-LHC upgrade, with an all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk) that will replace the current Inner Detector. The ITk will feature a pixel detector surrounded by a strip detector, with the strip system consisting of 4 barrel layers and 6 endcap disks.
The basic building block of the ITk Strip detector is the “module,” composed of front-end electronics glued to a...
In recent years, targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT) using alpha-particle–emitting radiopharmaceuticals, such as $^{211}$At, has attracted attention. To confirm the therapeutic efficacy of these agents, it is important to visualize the distribution of $^{211}$At in the body with high accuracy. In animal experiments, $^{211}$At imaging is typically performed using clinical SPECT systems...
Photon-counting computed tomography (PC-CT) is a next-generation imaging technology that enables material discrimination and localization with K-edge imaging by detecting individual X-ray photons along with their energy information. In a previous study, we developed one-dimensional PC-CT system consisting of multipixel photon counters (MPPCs) and yttrium-gadolinium-aluminum-gallium garnet...
With the upgrade of the LHC to the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), the Inner Detector will be replaced with the new all-silicon ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) to maintain tracking performance in a high-occupancy environment and to cope with the increase in the integrated radiation dose.
Comprising an active area of 165m$^2$, the outer four layers in the barrel and six disks in the endcap region...
The ATLAS experiment will be replacing the current inner detector with the Inner Tracker (ITk) to accommodate the increased occupancy and radiation levels anticipated at the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). The ITk system consists of silicon-based pixel and strip sub-detectors. The strip detectors, fabricated by Hamamatsu Photonics, are based on an n⁺-in-p design with a 75 μm strip pitch and a...
Radiation-hard silicon sensors used in high-energy physics experiments require a high electric field and are susceptible to surface breakdown at the edges of the planar sensors, especially at the tips of metal contacts or implants, where field peaks develop. These high-field regions, which are influenced by defects at the oxide interface and the geometry of the sensor, can give rise to...
We present a study of the forward and reverse current in silicon pad diodes irradiated to extreme neutron fluences of up to $5 \times 10^{17}\,n_{eq}/$cm$^2$, corresponding to expected fluences at the innermost radii of tracking detectors at a future circular hadron collider.
At such fluences, the low-doped silicon bulk and the highly doped implant no longer behave like a typical pn diode....
Proton Irradiation for quality assurance of ATLAS18 strip sensors with
Birmingham MC40 cyclotron
Thomas Thory-Rao, Andrew Stephen Chisholm
on behalf of the ATLAS ITk Strip Sensor Collaboration
The Birmingham MC40 Cyclotron is used to perform proton irradiations of
silicon detector devices as part of the ongoing ATLAS ITk Strip Quality
Assurance program. It provides a dedicated...
Next-generation collider experiments will require pixel detectors that can sustain high radiation doses and operate effectively at extreme luminosities. A CMOS depleted monolithic active pixel sensor has been developed with an advanced readout architecture to meet these demands, offering excellent radiation hardness, high-rate capability, fine spatial resolution, and precise timing...
The work presents a study aimed for the measuring of timing performance of thin planar pixel sensors (100 and 50 um) using the high resolution TimePix4 beam telescope for precise track-referenced measurements. The sensors were coupled to the triggerless TDCpix ASIC with 100 ps timestamping, originally developed for the GigaTracker of the NA62 experiment at CERN for use with 200 um-thick...
Author: Kazuki Yamamoto
Co-author: Shojun Ogasawara, Joshi Aryaa Rajendra, Soichiro Kojimaa, Kosuke Sato, Kazuo Tanaka, Jun Kataoka, Yoichi Yatsu, Toshihiro Chujo, Hiroki Nakanishi, Makoto Arimoto, Satoshi Hatori, Kyo Kume, Satoshi Mizushima, Shinko Sando, Takashi Hasegawa
Observations in the MeV gamma-ray band are known to be extremely challenging because gamma rays in this energy range...
Silicon strip detector (SSD) system is wildly used in many collider experiments and cosmic-ray experiments to measure high energy particle trajectory information. Suck system could reach O(10) um tracking resolution and ability to do particle identification for heavy ions. In addition, SSD based beam monitors/telescopes are useful tools for test beam studies to support the R&D of other...
The Gamma-Ray and AntiMatter Survey (GRAMS) is a balloon-borne and satellite-based experiment designed for MeV gamma-ray observations and indirect searches for dark matter via antimatter detection. It uses a cost-effective and scalable Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC), offering enhanced sensitivity to MeV gamma rays.
In this energy range, Compton scattering is the dominant...
The Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) is proposed for Higgs boson research, and will includes several detectors, such as the Electromagnetic Calorimeter (ECAL), Hadronic Calorimeter (HCAL), and Muon detector. Silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) is widely used in these detectors for light conversion. This paper presents a prototype design of SIPAC (SiPM readout ASIC for calorimeter)....
High resolution time-to-digital converter (TDC) is widely used in high-energy physics experiments, TOF-PET, and other fields. Targeting next-generation photon detectors (MCP-PMT, SiPM), this work presents a TDC prototype design achieving state-of-the-art time resolution in a 55-nm CMOS process.
The design integrates two timing cores for independent time-of-arrival (TOA) and time over...
Calorimeters play a vital role in particle acceleration experiments. Their readout systems are confronted with the dual challenges of unpredictable particle responses and nanosecond-scale signal fluctuations. Attaining a resolution below 5%, a dynamic range of 60 dB with low power consumption continues to pose significant technical challenges. This study is grounded in the architecture of...
The tracking performance of the ATLAS detector relies critically on its 4-layer Pixel
Detector, with a sensitive area of ~1.9 m2 and 92 million pixels. Its original part,
consisting in 3 layers of planar pixel sensor is continuously operating since the start
of LHC collisions in 2008, while Its innermost layer, the Insertable B Layer (IBL) at
about 3 cm from the beam line, was installed in...
In 2024 the Belle II experiment resumed data taking after its Long Shutdown 1, which was required to install a two-layer pixel detector and upgrade components of the accelerator. We describe the challenges of this upgrade and report on the operational experience during the subsequent data taking. With new data, the SVD confirmed high hit efficiency, large signal-to-noise and good...
The innermost tracking system of the CMS experiment consists of two tracking devices: the Silicon Pixel and Silicon Strip detectors. The tracker was specifically designed to very accurately determine the trajectory of charged particles or tracks, enabling precise reconstruction of primary and secondary vertices, as well as momentum measurements, in the high-luminosity environment of the LHC....
The ATLAS experiment will replace its existing Inner Detector with the new Inner Tracker (ITk) to cope with the operating conditions of the high-luminosity phase of the LHC (HL-LHC) scheduled to start in 2030. ITk is an all-silicon tracker with a pixel detector core surrounded by a strip detector resulting to an almost 180 m2 total silicon surface. This new tracker is designed to withstand the...
The HL-LHC will provide instantaneous luminosities up to $7.5 \times 10^{34}~$cm$^{−2}$s$^{-1}$, and the increased interaction rate and particle flux will degrade the ATLAS event reconstruction performance. The endcap and forward region where the liquid Argon calorimeter has coarser granularity and the inner tracker has degraded resolution will be particularly affected. A High-Granularity...
The High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) will significantly increase the instantaneous luminosity of proton-proton collisions, pushing the CMS experiment into a regime of extreme radiation levels, high particle multiplicities, and unprecedented data rates. To maintain and extend the physics performance of the CMS detector under these conditions, a complete replacement of the tracking...
ALICE 3, a next-generation heavy-ion experiment at the LHC, is proposed as part of the Phase IIb upgrades during the fourth long shutdown (LS4), scheduled in 2034-2035, with data taking planned from Run 5. ALICE 3 aims to exploit the full potential of the High-Luminosity LHC as a heavy-ion collider, targeting an integrated luminosity of 35 nb$^{-1}$ in Pb$-$Pb and 18 fb$^{-1}$ in pp...
Presenting on behalf of the Mighty-Tracker collabration of the LHCb experiement
Abstract
The LHCb experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is a forward spectrometer optimised for precision studies of heavy-flavour physics, with a particular focus on CP violation and rare decays of beauty (b) and charm (c) hadrons. To fully exploit the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), where LHCb will...
Radiation-tolerant CMOS active pixel sensors (APS) are demanding for imaging and monitoring systems in high-energy physics facilities, nuclear power plants and aerospace applications. However, the Total Ionizing Dose (TID) effects can significantly degrade image quality due to increased dark current and deteriorated transistors characteristics. This work presents a radiation-hardened CMOS...
The MALTA2 sensor is the second prototype in the MALTA family of Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors, developed using a modified 180 nm CMOS imaging process and optimized for operation in the high-radiation and high hit-rate conditions of future collider experiments. With a matrix of 224 × 512 pixels and a 36.4 $\mu$m pitch, MALTA2 is designed for fast charge collection, low noise, and...
The ALICE experiment will upgrade the innermost three layers of its vertexing detector, the Inner Tracking System (ITS), during the next LHC Long Shutdown (LS3) with a novel, bent, ultra-light MAPS-based tracker. Six wafer-scale sensor chips will be bent into three cylinders, held in place only by carbon foam, leaving no material except for the silicon die in most of the ALICE central barrel...
High-Voltage CMOS (HVCMOS) pixel sensors are promising candidates for tracking applications in future high-energy physics experiments due to their excellent comprehensive performance in terms of radiation resistance, time resolution, position resolution and power dissipation. Driven by the requirements of Upstream Pixel Tracker in the LHCb Upgrade II and future electron-positron colliders, a...
During the testing of pre-production and production of ATLAS ITk pixel modules the readout of modules can fail. These failures are due to issues in core columns causing the trigger processing inside the ITkPix chip to deadlock. This can be mitigated by disabling one or more core columns within the ITkPix chips. Disabling a core column results in a loss of 2% of the active area of a chip and...
ATLAS ITk Collaboration
We describe the extensive quality assurance programme undertaken during the production of the ATLAS ITk strip sensors. Quality Assurance (QA) is the systematic process of preventing defects during production, rather than identifying them after the fact. It uses well defined testing procedures to monitor the production process, ensuring consistent process control and...
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a particle detector that operates on the International Space Station (ISS), aiming to search for antimatter and dark matter by performing precision measurements of cosmic ray composition and flux. In order to increase physics sensitivity, a new layer(L0) of silicon strip tracker was planned to be installed on top of AMS-02 to improve cosmic ray...
Radiation-hardened CMOS image sensors are critical for surveillance in nuclear facilities and other high-radiation environments. Under such application conditions, ionizing radiation may rapidly degrade the photodiode performance and significantly compromise the sensor’s imaging capability. In this study, radiation damage effects on photodiodes are reviewed, and several radiation-tolerant...
During the production of the new ATLAS Inner-Tracker (ITk) strip sensors for the forthcoming High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) upgrade, the collaboration observed indications of low p-stop doping in a few sensor batches. Quality Control measurements of full-size sensors from these batches showed indications of sensor areas with low inter-strip isolation. Detailed studies of...
Silicon strip detectors developed for the Inner Tracker (ITk) of the ATLAS experiment are designed to operate in the harsh radiation environment of the HL-LHC accelerator. In the strip region of the ITk, sensors must withstand a total fluence of $1.6 \times 10^{15}~\text{n}_{\text{eq}}\text{ 1 MeV}/\text{cm}^2$ and a total ionizing dose (TID) of $66~\text{Mrad}$. To meet these requirements,...
For the High Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider, the current ATLAS Inner Detector will be replaced by an all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk). The installation is foreseen during the next LHC Long Shut Down 3 (2026-2030). The new tracker has been designed to face the challenging environment associated with the high number of collisions per bunch crossing and the expected large...
High-Voltage Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (HV-MAPS) offer nanosecond level timing in combination with a low material budget making them ideal for tracking detectors in high energy physics. With future experiments aiming for higher luminosities, the HV-MAPS technology has to satisfy strict requirements on time resolution and radiation tolerance.
One such experiment is the proposed LHCb...
The High-Voltage Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (HV-MAPS) become an attractive technology option for tracking detectors in high energy physics. This technology combines sensor and readout electronics in a single chip, making it compact and efficient. The development of HVCMOS sensor has mainly been implemented with 180 nm or 130 nm technology in the past decades.
To explore the small node...
Silicon is widely used as a sensor material in a broad range of imaging applications. In recent high-energy and high-intensity beam experiments, however, a high level of radiation tolerance has become essential. As a result, new semiconductor detectors composed of radiation-hard materials have been actively investigated. The Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) semiconductor is expected to offer excellent...
A diamond radiation detector based on a diamond semiconductor has been developed as part of a 3U CubeSat project aiming to measure charged particles (≥ 10 keV) escaping from the Earth’s atmosphere along geomagnetic fields. Diamond is known as an excellent material for semiconductor devices because of a bandgap of 5.5 eV and a carrier mobility of 4000 cm2/Vs at RT. Additionally,...
In the dynamic realm of silicon detector advancements, the pursuit of consistently improved timing precision has witnessed remarkable progress. However, the ambitious requirements of next-generation experiments, along with the broader impact on various future scenarios, such as, for example, the FCC-ee, have motivated substantial and dedicated R&D to unlock their full potential. In the context...
The wide bandgap 4H-SiC semiconductor material exhibits several intrinsic properties - namely, excellent radiation hardness, thermal stability, and high breakdown voltage - that make it a promising candidate for deployment in high-radiation environments. Recent advances in its industrial-scale production have further enhanced its attractiveness for high-energy physics applications.
This...
Resistive Silicon Detectors (RSDs) are a recent innovation in the field of silicon sensors for 4D-tracking applications. The RSD design combines the LGAD technology with resistive read-out, yielding fast and large signals which are shared between multiple read-out pads. Thanks to their characteristics, RSDs can accurately reconstruct the hit position of an ionizing particle, achieving a...
While the acceptor removal mechanism in standard n-in-p Low-Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGADs) is well understood and recognised as a key factor limiting their operational lifespan, the emergence of next-generation LGADs, such as resistive (RSDs) and compensated LGADs, calls for a deeper investigation into the donor removal mechanism, particularly at high initial donor concentrations (ND...
LGADs are well known for their excellent temporal resolution, a feature often attributed solely to internal charge multiplication. However, if gain were the only contributing factor, LGADs would exhibit significantly worse timing performance than what is experimentally observed.
In reality, three additional effects—non-uniform ionization, space charge, and gain saturation—play a fundamental...
Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGADs) have been proven to be promising candidates for future high-energy physics (HEP) detectors, with their scheduled implementation in the HL-LHC timing layers of the CMS and ATLAS experiments. They feature a highly doped gain layer which creates a high electric field region, leading to amplification of the primary signal charge and therefore offering both...
In recent years, development of pixel detectors has evolved from only improving the spatial resolution to also improving the temporal resolution.
...
Low-Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGADs) are typically fabricated on p-type substrates, following an n–p$^+$–p junction configuration, where a boron-enriched layer forms the gain region.
This architecture is considered optimal for timing and particle-tracking applications, as the primary charge carriers initiating the avalanche process are electrons, which have a higher drift velocity and ionization...
The ATLAS High Granularity Timing Detector (HGTD) is a new detector subsystem that will instrument the ATLAS experiment for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) phase in order to preserve the experiment reconstruction performance (and hence its physics potential) under the very high pileup (200 simultaneous proton-proton collisions at every 25ns) arising from the $7.5 \times 10^{34}...
With the advancement of high-luminosity accelerator experiments, future hadron collider projects following the LHC are expected to require tracking detectors with radiation tolerance approximately ten times greater than the level at the high-luminosity LHC. Therefore, the development of semiconductor detectors capable of stable operation in such high-radiation environments is crucial to...
In nuclear medicine, there is a growing need for imaging systems capable of visualizing gamma rays in the several-hundred keV range. One notable application is the imaging of radioactive gold nanoparticles, which emit 412-keV gamma rays. Although considered promising drug carriers, their biodistribution is not fully understood, making it important to visualize their distribution in animal...
Photon-counting computed tomography (PCCT) is a next-generation medical imaging technology that acquires spectral information by counting individual X-ray photons using energy thresholds. Current commercial PCCT systems use semiconductor detectors such as CdTe and CZT. Although, these detectors provide high energy resolution, they are limited by high cost and a lack of material flexibility....
Waseda University and Science Tokyo are jointly developing GRAPHIUM, a 65 kg small satellite scheduled for launch in 2027. Its primary instrument, INSPIRE, is a box-type hybrid Compton camera operating in pinhole mode from 30 to 200 keV and Compton mode from 200 keV to 3 MeV. It achieves an angular resolution of 7.0°and an energy resolution of 7.5% at 662 keV, with an expected sensitivity...
AstroPix is a novel high-voltage monolithic active pixel sensor being developed mainly for future gamma-ray space telescope, AMEGO-X. It is also expected to be used in the barrel imaging calorimeter in the ePIC electron-iron collider detector, USA. AstroPix has to be 500 μm thick and to be fully depleted by supplying bias voltage. The energy resolution must be < 10% (FWHM) at 122 keV and the...
X-ray polarization provides unique insights into the geometry, magnetic field configuration, and emission mechanisms of high-energy astrophysical sources. While missions such as PoGO+, Hitomi/SGD, XL-Calibur, and NASA’s IXPE have demonstrated the scientific potential of X-ray polarimetry, there remains a need for instruments capable of simultaneous imaging, spectroscopy, and polarimetry with...
SiPMs (MPPCs) have a <1cm small size with a low operation voltage <~50 V, which are suitable for radiation detectors onboard satellites with the limited space and power. However, after the radiation damage of 10 Gy/year caused by cosmic-rays, the SiPM dark current increases several orders of magnitude. In this presentation, we investigated the decrease of the dark current of radiation-damaged...
Current X-ray astronomical satellites carry CCD cameras that have moderate performance in imaging, spectroscopy and timing. Future X-ray telescopes with large effective areas and sharp point spread functions require quick readout of focal plane sensors to realize imaging spectroscopy without photon pile-up nor intermittency of its exposure time. To fulfill the requirements, we are developing a...
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most luminous explosions in the Universe, releasing an enormous amount of energy on the order of $10^{52–54}$ erg lasting from tens of milliseconds to several hundred seconds, and are regarded as one of the most powerful probes for exploring the early Universe. HiZ-GUNDAM is a proposed future satellite mission aimed at investigating the early Universe (z > 7)...
Future vertex colliders will require detector solutions that minimize material budget, which will be achieved by further integration of detectors, electronics and services. CMOS detectors have been proposed as a breakthrough solution for integration in particle physics experiments. The increased integration level combined with the subsequent higher channel density, and the high-performance...
The Mu3e experiment is on the frontier of charged lepton flavour violating searches and seeks to observe the rare muon decay $\mu^+ \rightarrow e^{+}e^{-}e^{+}$, as well as paving the way globally in terms of cutting-edge ultra low-mass detector technologies. Based at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), a leading Swiss national laboratory near Zurich, the Mu3e experiment consists of four pixel...
In the context of the Pentadimensional Tracking Space Detector project (PTSD), we are currently developing a demonstrator to increase the Technological Readiness Level of LGAD Si-microstrip tracking detectors for applications in space-borne instruments.
Low Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGAD) is a consolidated technology developed for particle detectors at colliders which allows for simultaneous...
The recent years have witnessed a growing interest in ultra-fast semiconductor sensors for time-resolved synchrotron light applications. Of special consideration are the Low Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGADs) which provide picosecond timing resolution and an internal gain mechanism, suitable to explore the fast repetition rates of hundreds of MHz and the high photon flux, low energy regime of the...
Strip detectors are populating the outer trackers of high energy particle experiments. They are convenient for covering large areas of sensitive material since they use less power and have fewer readout channels compared to pixels sensors. Nevertheless, they are typically not manufactured using CMOS production lines since they have to be stitched along the implant of the strip and use several...
