MRI: Infrastructure for Semiconductor Detector Design and Readout

University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal requests support for infrastructure for the design, readout, and testing of semiconductor sensors for use in high energy particle physics experiments. The equipment requested includes a probe station, wire bonders, geometry gauge, logic analyzer, plasma cleaner, voltage sources, and positioning stages. The equipment will allow the collaborating groups to broaden the range of their contributions to experiments in which they already have leadership roles (ATLAS, CLEO, CDF, and D0). The main focus of this proposal is to use this equipment to develop and construct the ATLAS pixel detector. ATLAS is a large international collaboration to which the US contributes over 20% of the effort, and which detector is currently under construction for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva Switzerland. Many NSF-supported groups participate in ATLAS. In addition, there is concurrent activity in the development of a silicon upgrade for the CDF detector for Run IIb at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. Many NSF-supported groups are collaborating on the CDF experiment. The University of New Mexico proposes to lead the design and testing of the pixel sensors, which would be based on the ATLAS designs. The opportunities presented for education by this project at the collaborating universities are also described.