PM2024 - 16th Pisa Meeting on Advanced Detectors

26 May 2024, 14:00 → 1 Jun 2024, 06:00 Europe/Rome

Sala Maria Luisa (La Biodola - Isola d'Elba (Italy))

16th Pisa Meeting on Advanced Detectors
 

This conference is the sixteenth of a series of meetings initiated in Tirrenia in 1980, and continued in Castiglione della Pescaia and La Biodola, devoted to review progress on advanced detectors and instrumentation for physics experiments. The meeting is organized by the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN),  the University of Pisa, and the University of Siena under the patronage of the Società Italiana di Fisica (SIF) and the European Physical Society (EPS).

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PisaMeeting Elsevier Template.zip

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Sunday, 26 May

16:00 Registration

19:30 Welcome cocktail offered by Hotel Hermitage/Hotel Golfo

Monday, 27 May

Welcome

Convener: Luca Baldini (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

1 Welcome from INFN-Pisa Director

Speaker: Paolo Spagnolo (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

2 Welcome from FDFP President

Speakers: Angelo Scribano (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Arnaldo Stefanini (PI)

02_Welcome AS 2024.pptx

3 Welcome from the Local Organizing Committee

Speaker: Francesco Forti (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

2024 opening.pdf

Opening talks

Convener: Luca Baldini (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

4 The US Instrumentation R&D Roadmap

The decadal strategic planning process in the US, including Snowmass and P5, has recently been concluded with the release of the 2023 P5 report. I will present an overview of the main findings and recommendations, as well as a resulting roadmap for detector development. In addition, I will briefly outline the planned coordination of the generic parts of the detector R&D program.

Speaker: Petra Merkel (Fermilab)

FDFP_USRoadmap_052724.pdf

5 The European Strategy and Detector R&D Program

The latest European Strategy Update stimulated the preparation of the European Detector Roadmap document in 2021 by ECFA. This roadmap outlines nine technology domains and pinpoints urgent R&D topics, known as Detector R&D Themes (DRDTs). Task forces were set up to work on these topics, which subsequently led to the formation of Detector R&D Collaborations (DRDs), now hosted at CERN. By the end of 2023, the first collaborations focusing on different detector technologies were approved following reviews by the new DRD Committee DRDC. Presently, additional collaborations are seeking approval. In my talk, I will give an overview of the set-up process and the current status of all DRD collaborations.

Speaker: Thomas Bergauer (HEPHY Vienna)

2024-05-27_PM2024_Bergauer_DRD-collaborations_v3.pdf

Integration and Detector Systems - Oral session

Conveners: James Fast (Jefferson Lab), Werner Riegler (CERN)

6 Upgrade of the CMS Tracker for the High Luminosity LHC

The LHC machine is planning an upgrade program which will bring the luminosity to about 5-7.5$\times$ 10$^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$, to possibly reach an integrated luminosity of 3000-4000 fb$^{-1}$ in ten years of operation. This High Luminosity LHC scenario, HL-LHC, will require an upgrade program of the LHC detectors known as Phase-2 upgrade. The current CMS Silicon Strip Tracker, already running beyond design specifications, and CMS Phase-1 Pixel Detector will not be able to survive HL-LHC radiation conditions and CMS will need completely new devices, in order to fully exploit the highly demanding conditions and the delivered luminosity. Both the Phase-2 Pixel system (Inner Tracker, IT) and the Outer Tracker (OT) will feature a higher detector granularity with respect to the present Tracker, more radiation hard sensors and read-out chips, and the capability of handling higher data rate and longer trigger latency. In particular, the Phase-2 Inner Tracker (IT) will feature 3D and planar n-in-p sensors, bump-bonded to read-out chips in 65 nm CMOS technology. The new Tracker has been designed to ensure at least the same performances of the Phase-1, in terms of tracking and vertexing capabilities, at the high pileup expected at HL-LHC. Another key feature of the OT will be to provide tracking information to the Level-1 trigger, allowing trigger rates to be kept at a sustainable level without sacrificing physics potential. For this, the OT will be made out of modules which have two closely spaced sensors read-out by a common front-end ASIC, which can correlate hits in the two sensors creating short track segments called "stubs". The stubs will be used for tracking in the L1 trigger stage. This report is focusing on the replacement of the CMS Tracker system, describing the technological choices together with some highlights on the start of the production activity.

Speaker: Anna Macchiolo (University of Zurich)

MACCHIOLO_CMS_TRACKER_PISA_MEETING2024_V8.pdf

7 ATLAS upgrades for High Luminosity LHC

While the on-going Run-3 data-taking campaign will provide twice the integrated proton-proton luminosity currently available at the LHC, most of the data expected for the full LHC physics program will only be delivered during the HL-LHC phase. For this, the LHC will undergo an ambitious upgrade program to be able to deliver an instantaneous luminosity of $7.5\times 10^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$, allowing the collection of more than 3 ab$^{-1}$ of data at $\sqrt{s}=$13.6 (14) TeV. This unprecedented data sample will allow ATLAS to perform several precision measurements to constrain the Standard Model Theory (SM) in yet unexplored phase-spaces, in particular in the Higgs sector, a phase-space only accessible at the LHC. To benefit from such a rich data-sample it is fundamental to upgrade the detector to cope with the challenging experimental conditions that include huge levels of radiation and pile-up events. The ATLAS upgrade comprises a completely new all-silicon tracker with extended rapidity coverage that will replace the current inner tracker detector; a redesigned trigger and data acquisition system for the calorimeters and muon systems allowing the implementation
of a free-running readout system. Finally, a new subsystem called High Granularity Timing Detector will aid the track-vertex association in the forward region by incorporating timing information into the reconstructed tracks. An important ingredient, relevant to almost all measurements, is a precise determination of the delivered luminosity with systematic uncertainties below the percent level. This challenging task will be achieved by collecting the information from several detector systems using different and complementary techniques.
This presentation will describe the ongoing ATLAS detector upgrade status and the main results obtained with the prototypes, giving a synthetic, yet global, view of the whole upgrade project.

Speaker: Federico Lasagni Manghi (INFN - Bologna)

ATLAs upgrade for HL-HLC.pdf

10:20 Coffee break

8 ALICE silicon tracker upgrades for LHC Run4 and beyond

For the Long Shutdown 3 of the LHC the ALICE experiment is foreseeing an
upgrade of the inner barrel of its Inner Tracking System: the ITS3.
This new vertex detector is based on Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors
produced in a commercial 65 nm CMOS
technology. Each half layer is realized with a single stitched sensor of
26 cm in length and ≤ 50µm in thickness bent to form a half cylinder
and held in place with carbon foam supports. The detector is air cooled
allowing for an extremely low material budget of 0.07 X/X0 per layer. With
respect to the current ALICE vertex detector, ITS3 will improve the
pointing resolution by a factor of two and the tracking efficiency by 30%
for hadrons of low transverse momentum.
Parallelly, ALICE is designing a next generation heavy-ion experiment for
LHC Run 5 and 6.
Its tracking system will be based on a vertex detector, integrated in a
retractable structure inside the beam pipe to achieve the best possible
pointing resolution, and a very-large-area outer tracker, surrounding the
vertex detector and covering about 8 units of pseudorapidity.
Both systems will be based on the same MAPS technology developed for ITS3
and will further push its detector requirements: the innermost vertex
detector layer, placed at 5 mm from the interaction point, must withstand
an integrated radiation load of 9x10^15 1 MeV neq/cm2 NIEL and 288 Mrad
TID; the outer tracker, extending from the beam pipe to a maximum radius
of about 80 cm, covers more than 50 m2 of area.
This contribution will cover both the ITS3 upgrade and the projects for
ALICE3 silicon tracker, highlighting their requirements, sensor
specifications, mechanics and integration. It will showcase the results
achieved during the ITS3 R&D and outline the challenges expected for the
implementation of the ALICE 3 tracking system.

Speaker: Luca Aglietta (INFN - Torino)

ITS3_ALICE3_tracker_Aglietta_v2.2.pdf

9 The LHCb Upgrade II

The Upgrade II of the LHCb experiment is proposed for the long shutdown 4 of the LHC. The upgraded detector will operate at a maximum luminosity of $1.5\times10^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$, with the aim of reaching a total integrated luminosity of ∼300 fb$^{-1}$ over the lifetime of the HL-LHC. The collected data will allow the full exploitation of the flavour physics capabilities of the HL-LHC, probing a wide range of physics observables with unprecedented accuracy. Among these, unique sensitivities are expected for the measurement of CKM phases and charm CP violation, as well as in rare heavy-quark decays.
To achieve this ambitious programme, the current detector performance must be maintained at the expected maximum pile-up of ∼40, and even improved in certain specific areas. To meet this challenge, it is planned to replace all existing spectrometer components to increase the granularity, reduce the amount of material in the detector and exploit the use of new technologies, including precision timing on the order of tens of picoseconds. Following the approval of a framework TDR and physics case document, detailed discussions on detector scenarios, institutional participation and funding are now underway, with the aim of starting the subdetector TDR phase immediately after.
The presentation will review the key points of the physics programme and the main options of the detector design.

Speaker: Andreas Schopper (CERN)

Pisa_LHCb_UII.pdf

10 Power over Fiber (PoF) for use in large future large volume LAr detectors

Power over Fiber (PoF) technology has emerged as a resilient solution for delivering power in harsh environments, notably in cryogenic settings. This paper explores the application of PoF in extreme conditions, emphasizing its distinct advantages. In cryogenic environments, PoF offers a reliable means of power transmission, leveraging optical fibers to transfer power with minimal signal degradation. The PoF technology excels in maintaining low noise levels, crucial for sensitive equipment operating in extreme temperatures. Furthermore, PoF provides inherent electrical isolation, mitigating the risk of interference and enhancing system reliability.
Efficiency is a key attribute of PoF, as it minimizes energy losses during power transmission. The absence of electrical conductors ensures immunity to electromagnetic interference and radiofrequency interference, making PoF particularly suitable for cryogenic environments where traditional power delivery methods may fall short. This talk highlights the robustness of PoF in challenging conditions, underscoring its capacity to revolutionize power delivery and management in critical applications, offering a dependable solution with low noise, optimal efficiency, and superior isolation.
The PoF technology has been successfully developed for DUNE FD2 and is being deployed for the planned PD cathode system. Three years of effort has provided a series of successful improvements and possible pathways for further development. Ideally suited for future large volume LAr detectors, a roadmap of further PoF technology expansion will be discussed.

Speaker: William Pellico (Fermilab)

Power Over Fiber Development for Detector Use.pdf

Power Over Fiber Development for Detector Use.pptx

11 Overview and Performance of the ePIC Tracker in the EIC Experiment

The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory will study the collisions of polarized electrons with polarized protons and light ions as well as unpolarized heavy ions. The central tracker of the ePIC (electron-Proton/Ion Collider experiment) tracker is made up of barrel, forward, and backward detectors to achieve a wide pseudo-rapidity ($|\eta| <$ 3.5) coverage. On both sides of the central tracker, far-forward and far-backward detectors are located to track particles close to the beamline. The barrel region consists of three innermost silicon layers L0, L1, and L2 (referred to as the SVT inner barrel) with an ultra-low material budget based on silicon MAPS in 65 nm CMOS technology and a pixel pitch of $\rm \sim 20 ~\mu m$ to achieve a precise tracking and vertexing capability, two outer silicon layers (known as the outer barrel), an inner micro-pattern gas detector (MPGD) layer followed by a time-of-flight (TOF) layer and an outer MPGD layer. The forward region of the tracker has five silicon disks followed by two MPGD layers and a TOF layer, while the backward region is made up of five silicon layers followed by two MPGD layers. The experiment has a challenging environment due to the presence of the background radiation which will create the background hits on the tracker. Therefore, tracking will play a crucial role in selecting the real hits and avoiding these background hits during track finding and fitting using the timing information of the detectors. The studies utilize the modular ePIC software stack for simulation, reconstruction, and analysis. This presentation will provide an overview of the experiment and the layout of the ePIC tracker with the corresponding material budget. Further studies related to background simulations, tracking in ACTS software, and tracking performances using full and fast simulations will also be shown.

Speaker: Shyam Kumar (INFN - Bari)

PisaMeeting_ShyamKumar_27May24.odp

PisaMeeting_ShyamKumar_27May24.pdf

12 SND@LHC: a roadmap for neutrino detection at LHC and HL-LHC

SND@LHC is a compact and stand-alone experiment to perform measurements with neutrinos produced at the LHC in the pseudo-rapidity region of $7.2 < \eta < 8.6$.
The detector being used to take data during Run 3, located 480~m downstream of IP1, is composed of a hybrid 830~kg target with tracking capabilities, followed by a calorimeter and a muon system. The target alternates bricks of emulsion cloud chambers and scintillating fibre tracker layers with good spatial and time resolution. The Veto, HCAL and Muon detector use scintillating bars with different geometries and photodetectors optimised for the physics performance. All active detectors are read out by silicon photomultipliers connected to custom read-out electronics based on the TOFPET2 ASIC, providing noise suppression, charge and time information. The DAQ system operates in a trigger-less fashion.
The experimental configuration allows to distinguish between all three neutrino flavours, opening a unique opportunity to probe physics of heavy flavour production at the LHC in the region that is not accessible to ATLAS, CMS and LHCb. The detector has been commissioned and installed in 2021-2022. A first set of data has been collected, providing the first observation of neutrinos produced at a collider. Further analysis is ongoing.
The first phase aims at operating the detector throughout LHC Run 3 to collect a total of 250~fb$^{-1}$. A thorough detector upgrade is foreseen for Run 4: the new detector will replace emulsions with silicon sensors and will use a magnetised HCAL, as well as add a muon spectrometer. In addition, the installation of an additional detector with complementary pseudorapidity coverage is foreseen, aimed at greatly reducing the systematics on the charm production measurement.
This talk will introduce the SND@LHC experiment and describe both its current detector and the foreseen upgrade, which letter of intent is being finalised in these days.

Speaker: Elena Graverini (Università di Pisa / INFN / EPFL)

hello.pdf

13 Advancements in Experimental Techniques for Measuring Dipole Moments of Short-Lived Particles at the LHC

A proof-of-principle experiment for measuring the dipole moments of charm baryons is planned in the LHC Run3. It is based on the phenomena of particle channeling and spin precession in bent crystals. Recent channeling efficiency measurements performed at the CERN SPS of bent crystals developed at INFN, specifically for this experiment, are presented, marking significant progress towards its realisation. Furthermore, a silicon pixel detector for the measurement of particles channeled at the LHC is under construction. It will work in the secondary vacuum of a Roman Pot positioned inside the LHC beam pipe. The design, construction and integration of the pixel detector within the Roman Pot will be discussed.

Speaker: Nicola Neri (Università di MIlano / INFN)

Neri_PisaMeeting_24.pdf

Applications to Industrial and Societal Challenges - Poster session

This session will be on display on Monday morning and Tuesday morning
Link to the contributions

Photo Detectors and Particle ID - Poster session

This session will be on display on Monday morning and Tuesday morning
Link to the contributions

14 Particle identification using plastic scintillation counters in the COMET Phase-I experiment

The COMET (COherent Muon to Electron Transition) experiment searches for a muon-to-electron conversion with muonic aluminium in which a muon is captured in an orbit instead of an electron. This process violates the conservation law of charged lepton flavour and is forbidden in the standard model of particle physics. If discovered, this would be clear evidence of the new physics. In the first stage of the experiment, an electron will be detected by a Cylindrical Detector (CyDet) which consists of a Cylindrical Drift Chamber (CDC) and a set of Cylindrical Trigger Hodoscopes (CTH). The CDC reconstructs the momentum of electrons while the CTH measures the precise timing. The CTH is composed of two layers of segmented plastic scintillators, and scintillation photons are read out through optical fibre bundles and detected by silicon-photomultiplier (SiPM). In the experiment, cosmic ray muons can mimic the signal electron whose momentum is 105 MeV/c. We demonstrated that the CTH detector can identify most of those muons by combining the energy deposition among four counters by conducting the beam test at Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Switzerland.
In this report, the results of the beam test will be presented.

Speaker: Yuki Fujii (Imperial College London)

picture_Pisameeting2024.jpg

poster_Pisameeting2024.pdf

15 Vetoing charged particles for neutrino detection at the LHC

The SND@LHC detector is a compact and standalone experiment to perform measurements with neutrinos produced at the LHC in an unexplored pseudo-rapidity region of 7.2 < 𝜂 < 8.6, complementary to all the other experiments at the LHC. The detector is a hybrid system based on an 800 kg target mass of tungsten plates, interleaved with emulsion and electronic trackers complemented with a veto system, a calorimeter
and a muon system.

Efficient tagging of incoming charged particles is of the utmost importance to identify interactions of neutrinos, or feebly interacting particles, in the detector volume. On data collected in 2022, the veto inefficiency, although at the 10E(-7) level, had to be reinforced by using the first two planes of the electronic tracking detector in order to achieve a veto inefficiency suitable for rejecting all the muon background. Consequently, the collaboration decided to enhance the two-plane veto system with a third layer of scintillating bars, before the resumption of LHC operations in 2024.

This presentation will detail the construction and commissioning of the third veto plane. The efficiency has been evaluated using cosmic rays and validated with data obtained from pp collisions after installation. The talk will also cover the performance and improvements compared to the previous setup.

Speaker: Giulia Paggi (Università di Bologna)

Picture-Paggi.jpg

poster-Paggi-VetoSNDLHC.pdf

16 High-rate high-resolution performance of new cadmium zinc telluride linear array detectors for energy-resolved X-ray imaging

Recently, sub-millimetre cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe or CZT) linear array detectors for high-flux spectroscopic X-ray imaging are proposed and fabricated by our group. These activities, in the framework of a PRIN-MUR project, plan the development of room temperature X-ray scanners for contaminant detection in food industry. As widely demonstrated, CZT is one of the key materials for the development of room temperature X-ray and gamma ray detectors and great efforts have been made on both the device and the crystal growth technologies. In this work, we will present the results from spectroscopic and imaging investigations on new high flux HF-CZT linear array detectors, with hole mobility-lifetime product enhancements and sub-millimetre pixels (pixel pitches of 500 µm). The detector response will be measured taking into account the mitigation of the effects of incomplete charge collection, pile-up, charge sharing and high flux radiation induced polarization phenomena. Preliminary tests with custom front-end ASICs showed excellent room temperature energy resolution FWHM of 1 % (0.6 keV) at 59.5 keV.

Speaker: Leonardo Abbene (DIFC Università di Palermo)

picture-ABBENE.jpg

poster-Abbene.pdf

17 Characterisation of Silicon Nitride and Aluminium Window SDD Under Low Pressure Environments

Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) are integral to X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry. They are vital for non-destructively analyzing cultural heritage samples. Traditionally, these detectors have used beryllium windows to maintain vacuum and protect the sensor. However, beryllium windows are not transparent to low energy X-rays. This opacity restricts the ability of SDDs to measure oxygen’s characteristic X-rays. Recent advancements in SDD windowing technology have led to the development of detectors featuring silicon nitride and aluminum windows. This change enhances the low energy X-ray detection capabilities of SDDs, enabling the detection of lighter elements.
However, this new type of window is not helium tight. In previous XRF studies, helium is often used to displace air, allowing for increased flux of X-rays to the sensor. Since this is not possible with the new windows, it inspired us to take XRF measurements in various low-pressure environments to study the improvement of the detection sensitivity, particularly for low energy X-rays. We performed characterization studies of these new SDDs in different vacuums, highlighting their performance in capturing low energy X-rays and comparing these results to previous SDDs.
The heightened sensitivity from the silicon nitride and aluminum window in different vacuum systems increases the potential information that can be derived from non-destructive XRF analysis. This can improve the identification and preservation of historical materials. The potential applications of this technology also extend beyond the field of cultural heritage into space exploration. The improved detection of low energy X-rays could be instrumental in deciphering the composition and geological history of astronomical surfaces, especially as the detection of oxygen can be used as a marker for water. This advancement in SDD technology, therefore, not only enhances our ability to understand the past on Earth but also opens new frontiers in space exploration.

Speaker: Maryam Manzoor Amanullah (NYUAD)

Charecterizing Silicon Nitride Window Silicon Drift Detector for XRF applications.pdf

Charecterizing Silicon Nitride Window Silicon Drift Detector for XRF applications.png

picture-maryam.jpg

18 A novel SiPM-based detector for Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (ToFMS) is a well-established technique used to identify, discover and quantify compounds in a sample and to study the structure and chemical properties of molecules. It has a wide range of applications in different fields like proteomics, drug development, environmental analysis/monitoring, space exploration or forensic analysis. In ToFMS the sample under study is ionized and the resulting ions are accelerated to the same kinetic energy. The time it takes the ions to reach the detector depends on their mass-to-charge ratio (m/z). Most ToFMS instruments employ microchannel plate detectors (MCPs), mainly due to their excellent time resolution and high gain, which allows for single-ion detection with high mass resolution. However, MCPs are expensive, fragile, prone to saturation and require high vacuum. Besides, their dead time limits the maximum ion count rate. We propose a new detector for ToFMS that consists of a fast scintillator, an array of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and FastIC, an ASIC for fast-timing applications. The arrival time and the amplitude of the pulses detected by the SiPMs are digitized by FastIC, which permits processing multiple channels with simplicity, low cost and power consumption. This detector has the potential to provide a time resolution comparable to that of the MCPs used in ToFMS, while overcoming most of their limitations. In particular, it could permit increasing the data taking rate and facilitate the construction of compact and portable instruments, which could have a significant impact in forensic, clinical and space applications. Additionally, it could be used for mass spectrometry imaging, for instance to study the dynamics of molecular reactions. We will describe our detector, the results obtained with a prototype installed in a research ToFMS system at Oxford University and the prospects for the next generation of these detectors.

Speaker: Antonio Mariscal (Universitat de Barcelona)

Poster-Antonio-Mariscal-Castilla-16thPISAMeeting.pdf

19 R&D of MCP-PMTs in XIOPM

Because of its superior timing resolution, low dark noise, and stability in magnetic fields, the Microchannel Plate Photomultiplier Tube (MCP-PMT) is an essential component of particle identification detectors like PANDA, LHCb and Belle II, as well as fast neutron or x-ray detections in nuclear inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments and laser communication. However, there is more work to be done to develop the MCP-PMT with a low after pulse, high dynamic range, robust output, and high spatial resolution. Since 2011, we have meticulously examined the properties of the MCP-PMT through simulations and tests, and we have created many sorts of prototypes for investigations in nuclear physics and high energy physics. Understanding the behavior of these devices and developing better versions is aided by tracking the electron process inside MCP-PMT using 3D simulations. In the Double Cone Ignition (DCI) experiment conducted in China, tens of gated MCP-PMTs with a gating response time of 5 ns and a gating noise amplitude of ±2mV were utilized. These MCP-PMTs successfully captured the fast neutron signals amidst a strong gamma ray background. For the purpose of severe radiation detection, a high dynamic range MCP-PMT with a linear output up to 250mA@100ns was created. Additionally, we are dveloping a long-lasting, position-sensitive MCP-PMT for China's Super Tam Charm Facility (STCF). Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Experiment (JUNO) has mounted about twenty thousand 20-inch MCP-PMTs. We would like to demonstrate the research and development of the fast, gated, high dynamic range, and multi-anode MCP-PMTs in this presentation.

Speaker: Ping Chen (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Picture-Ping Chen.jpg

Pisa Poster-Ping Chen.pdf

20 Silicon photomultipliers for future HEP experiments

For the particle identification systems of the future high energy physics detectors, single photon sensors with sub-mm granularity and high sensitivity are needed. Due to harsh radiation environments and high track densities, they must be resilient to neutrons and have excellent timing resolution. For example, in the LHCb RICH after Upgrade 2, the expected fluence will be 3x10$^{12}$ neq /cm$^2$. A timing resolution for single photons below 100 ps is needed to associate photons to the tracks coming from different vertices. Silicon photomultipliers are considered a baseline technology for the application due to their high photon detection efficiency, good timing resolution, and low operating voltage compared to vacuum-based photosensors. Unfortunately, they are sensitive to neutron irradiation. The dark counts increase with the neutron fluence and distort the signal baseline, making the single photons undistinguishable. Although the DCR of different unirradiated SiPMs varies, the devices show very similar rates when irradiated to high doses. The operation can be recovered by lowering the operation temperature. In this work, we investigated the performance parameters of FBK NUV-HD-RH 1 mm$^2$ device and determined the temperature below the operation possible. The cryogenic container was used to cool the silicon photomultipliers contained in an RF-shielded box with the cryogenic preamplifier to the liquid nitrogen temperature. With two resistor heaters, the temperature was increased by 40 degrees, and different performance parameters were measured before and after irradiation. In the presentation, we will show the results of the I-V characteristic, DCR, timing and pulse height distribution, and the determination of the working temperature. We will show that the sensor can be used as a single photon detector by operating silicon photomultipliers at very low temperatures.

Speaker: Rok Pestotnik (Jozef Stefan Institute)

picture-2024_Pisa_Pestotnik.png

poster-2024_Pisa_Pestotnik.pdf

21 High-Res Gamma Ray Multiplier Tubes (HGMTs) Based on Surface Direct Conversion in Laminar MCPs

We have proposed a method of constructing large-area MCPs by stacking thin, patterned laminae on edge to form laminar MCPs (LMCPs$^{\rm{TM}}$) with applications in gamma ray detection for TOF-PET and high-energy physics experiments. The laminae are first patterned with channels of arbitrary shape and size so that when stacked, they form pores as in a traditional MCP. Since the laminae are coated with resistive and secondary-emitting layers before stacking, methods other than ALD, such as CVD, can be used. Pore functionalization is completed before stacking, introducing additional parameters for controlling the shower development. Non-planar and curved slab geometries are also possible.

A package of LMCPs optimized for gamma ray conversion and signal amplification forms the high-resolution gamma ray multiplier tube (HGMT$^{\rm{TM}}$). Gamma ray detection is accomplished through surface direct conversion: 511 keV gamma rays interact in the LMCP via the photoelectric and Compton effects to create an electron near a pore surface that escapes the substrate and generates an electron cascade towards an anode. This eliminates the scintillator and photodetector sub-systems in conventional PET scanners, and allows assembling the HGMT at atmospheric pressure in a package with reduced vacuum requirements.

We present simulations of HGMTs and the current progress towards creating an LMCP and measuring its detection efficiency. Geant4 simulations of a 20 $\times$ 20 $\times$ 2.54 cm$^{\rm{3}}$ LMCP composed of 150-micron thick lead-glass laminae predicts a $\geq$ 30% conversion efficiency to a primary electron that penetrates an interior wall of a pore. The efficiency rate to produce a low-energy cascade of secondary electrons will be tested by comparing the gamma ray detection rate in the LMCP to a PMT scintillation counter. TOPAS simulations of the Derenzo and XCAT brain phantoms imaged by a whole-body scanner of HGMTs indicate dose reductions of factors of 100 from literature benchmarks.

Speaker: Cameron Poe (University of Chicago)

picture-poe_headshot.jpg

poster-poe_PM2024_HGMT_v1a.pdf

22 Gain stability of Hamamatsu R5912-MOD photo-multipliers at low temperature

The Photon Detection System is a crucial component of the ICARUS detector in the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) Program at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL). It consists of 360 Photo Multiplier Tubes (PMTs) 8” Hamamatsu 5912-MOD and, since June 2020, it has been operated at the liquid Argon cryogenic temperature. During these years, the PMTs have shown gain losses as an aging effect. Using a climatic chamber at the INFN Sezione di Catania, we confirmed a stable gain for a single PMT 8” Hamamatsu 5912-MOD when operated at room temperature, and a persistent gain loss at temperatures around -70°C, although far from the liquid Argon one. No gain recovery was obtained bringing the PMT back to room temperature. We suspect that dynode deterioration due to temperature gradient plays a significant role in this phenomenon. During our test, the PMT was illuminated by a 520 nm laser source and operated in current mode. The laser beam was split into two optical fibers, the first one transmitting light through Neutral Density filters and then diffusing it over the surface of the PMT photocathode. The other optical fiber was used for an independent reference measurement of the injected light via a bolometric photodetector. In this presentation, the main technical characteristics of the measurement system are shown together with preliminary results which need further investigation to elucidate the underlying mechanisms driving the gain loss and to propose new mitigation strategies.

Speaker: Clara Saia (Università di Catania / INFN)

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poster_saia.pdf

23 First results on monolithic sensors with additional gain produced with a 110 nm technology for the ALICE 3 Time of Flight detector

One of the main challenges of the near-future high-energy physics experiments will be the dramatic increase of the spatial density of particle collisions and the need to carry also precise timing information with silicon detectors to perform an accurate reconstruction of tracks. To cope with such requirements one of the recent developments exploits the integration of the Low Gain Avalanche Diode technology (LGAD) in the design of fully depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS). One of the possible applications of this innovative sensor is the Time-Of-Flight (TOF) system for a next-generation heavy-ion experiment, named ALICE 3 at the LHC. The ALICE 3 TOF requires a timing resolution of 20 ps. Currently, the time resolution of CMOS sensors needs to be pushed significantly beyond the present state-of-art, and to achieve the desired value, a vigorous R&D is necessary.

This presentation will focus on the study of the first production of a Monolithic sensor with additional gain produced with a commercial 110 nm technology. The presentation will be divided into two macro sections: the first part will be devoted to results achieved with sensor simulation performed to design the sensor and define its characteristics. In the second part, the experimental results obtained with the laboratory tests of the first prototypes to study the static and dynamic performance of the monolithic sensor will be reported. To conclude the sensor characterization performed in a test beam at the CERN Proton Synchrotron in October 2023 will be described in detail. The description of the aforementioned studies will be followed by an overview of the next steps of the R&D.

Speaker: Giulia Gioachin (Politecnico di Torino)

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poster-Gioachin.pdf

24 Characterization of light yield non-proportionality in plastic scintillator-based detectors for satellite cosmic-ray experiments

Scintillators are among the most common detectors employed for characterization and spectroscopy of a wide variety of radiations, with applications ranging from cosmic-ray experiments to nuclear medicine. Quenching effects degrade the scintillation light yield proportionality, inevitably affecting the instrument performance and posing a layer of complexity to its precise calibration. Detailed characterization of the quenching effects is of crucial importance for a proper interpretation of the detector response.
In satellite experiments, plastic scintillator detectors are a common choice to provide an anti-coincidence shield for gamma-rays and for identifying charged nuclei species.
In the performance studies of plastic scintillator-based instruments for space applications, through dedicated beam test campaigns carried out at CERN SPS, we probed non-proportionality effects within plastic scintillators by inspecting the response of scintillator tiles of different materials and sizes to a beam of ions. The tested tiles were equipped with Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) to detect the scintillation light and their design was optimized for providing charge-tagging capabilities in a vast dynamic range and high charge resolution to both low- and high-Z nuclei.
In this contribution, we present the main results of the characterization of plastic scintillators quenching effects resulting from a wide range of particle energy releases, from minimum ionizing particles (MIPs) to charged nuclei heavier than iron. These effects impact on the charged nuclei identification performances of current and future space-based high-energy cosmic-ray experiments.

Speaker: Pierpaolo Loizzo (INFN - Bari)

picture-Loizzo.jpg

poster-PM2024.pdf

25 Timing performance of FBK SiPM NUV-HD-MT technology

The improvement of the timing performance is one of the main focus for several fields from high energy physics to biomedical applications such as Time of Flight Positron Emission Tomography (ToF-PET). In the last years, excellent results in terms of Single Photon Time Resolution (SPTR) and Coincidence Time Resolution (CTR) have been achieved thanks to the improvement of the scintillator crystal materials, the electronics readout and the detector development. In this study we will present SPTR and CTR measurements of the recently introduced FBK NUV-HD Metal in Trench (MT) SiPM technology. Thanks to the addition of the optically insulating material inside the trenches, FBK NUV-HD-MT devices show an extremely low CrossTalk (CT) of about $\simeq5\%$ at $47.5V$ ($\simeq15V$ excess bias). The Photon Detection Efficiency (PDE) reaches the $\simeq65\%$ at the same excess bias at $420nm$.
By using a femto-second laser with a wavelength of $390nm$, we have measured the SPTR for SPADs with different microcell sizes and different versions with a metal mask outside the active area (capacitive coupling). Moreover, a $1mm\times1mm$ and a $3mm\times3mm$ SiPM with $40\mu m$ cell size and M0 masking version have been tested. The CTR has been measured using a $4mm\times4mm$ SiPM to match the $3mm\times3mm\times5mm$ LYSO:Ce:Ca crystal. By using a high frequency readout electronics, we achieved a CTR of about $\simeq 80 ps$ FWHM and an outstanding SPTR of about $\simeq 19ps$ and $\simeq 30ps$ FWHM for the SPAD and $1mm\times1mm$ SiPM with $40\mu m$ M0 masking respectively.
This work opens the door to further investigations in order to study the worsening of the SPTR as the SPAD size increases but also to understand the role of the metal masking in the timing performance and to discuss about limitations and further improvements.

Speaker: Michele Penna (Politecnico Torino / FBK / INFN)

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poster-timingFBK - PM.pdf

26 Upgrade of the LHCb RICH detectors and characterisation of the new opto-electronics chain

The LHCb detector has been upgraded to deal with a five-fold increase in the instantaneous luminosity delivered to the experiment during LHC Run 3 and to readout data at the full bunch crossing rate of 40 MHz. The enhanced LHCb RICH detectors now feature Multianode Photomultiplier Tubes (MaPMTs), covering a total area of approximately 4 square meters, and a brand new frontend electronics to comply with the trigger-less readout architecture. The opto-electronics chain is capable to detect single photons at repetition rates of up to 100 MHz/cm² while maintaining an exceptionally low noise count rate.
The upgrade is comprehensively outlined, including details about the characterisation and studies on the photon detection system. Special attention is given to the key properties of the photomultipliers with the characterisation of an unexpected noise source observed in the MaPMTs, persisting for several microseconds after the primary signal. Strategies to equalise and operate the approximately 200000 channels of the RICH system under optimal conditions are extensively discussed.
The stability and uniformity achieved by optimising the parameters of the opto-electronics chain enable the RICH system to function successfully to provide an excellent charged hadron identification in high occupancy conditions. The employment of MaPMTs opens unprecedented capabilities of evaluating the luminosity with the RICH detectors by estimating the anodic currents and cross calibrate them with the number of Cherenkov hits. The innovative technique to estimate the luminosity online and offline is presented.

Speaker: Federica Borgato (INFN - Padova)

picture-federicaborgato.png

poster-PisaMeeting_LHCbRICH_Borgato.pdf

27 The latest performance and refurbishment of the pixelated Timing Counter (pTC) in the MEG II physics data acquisition

MEG II, the upgrade of the MEG experiment, has run physics data acquisition since 2021, collecting $7.3 \times 10^{14}$ $\mu^+$ on target during 42 weeks of DAQ live time. It searches for the Lepton Flavor Violating Decay $\mu^+ \to e^+ \gamma$ with sensitivity improved by an order of magnitude from MEG that had set the current upper limit on the branching ratio ${\mathcal B}(\mu^+ \to e^+ \gamma) < 4.2 \times 10^{-13}$ at 90% confidence level.

The pixelated Timing Counter (pTC) is responsible for providing precise timing information of positrons $e^+$. It is a time of flight detector devoted to reconstructing the decay time of $\mu^+$ on target and to supplying efficient trigger information on the positron side. The detector consists of 512 fast plastic scintillator pixels ($120 \times 50(40) \times 5 \ {\rm mm}^3$) readout by twin arrays of 6 series-connected SiPMs ($3\times3 \ {\rm mm}^2$), glued on opposite sides of each pixel. Its goal is to achieve a resolution on the reconstructed time of 40 ps, by exploiting multiple-hits events where the detector overall resolution should improve with $1/\sqrt{N_{\rm hit}}$.

This contribution will show how the detector has degraded by increase of dark current due to irradiation damage on SiPMs, from the achieved performance in the 2021 run reaching 39 ps to the one in the 2023 run around 42 ps, for events with 8 hits corresponding to the average number of hits expected from Monte Carlo simulation for $\mu^+ \to e^+ \gamma$ events. Therefore, we have been organizing the refurbishment of the detector using 1200 new SiPMs ($4\times4 \ {\rm mm}^2$) and will report the estimation of time resolution recovery based on the selection of replacement pixels and the results of laboratory tests.

Speaker: Taku Yonemoto (UTokyo)

picture-yonemotoPM2024Elba.jpg

poster-yonemotoPM2024Elba.pdf

video-yonemotoPM2024Elba.mp4

28 Development of X-ray Spectroscopy Detectors for Synchrotron Radiation Sources

Synchrotron radiation facilities serve as crucial interdisciplinary research platforms, with the performance and operational efficiency closely tied to the quality of the employed detector technology. The Silicon Drift Detector (SDD) is characterized by high count rates, and superior energy resolution, which has led to its widespread application in synchrotron radiation spectroscopy experiments in recent years. China is currently constructing a fourth-generation High Energy Photon Source (HEPS), which is expected to be open to users by 2025. With the increasing brightness of the light source and the need to improve experimental efficiency, there is a gradual progression towards the development of array SDD detectors. The HEPS/PAPS Detector System Project Team at the Institute of High Energy Physics has conducted the key technological research and development for the unit and array SDD detectors in response to future synchrotron radiation requirements, and has obtained some preliminary test results. The project team has established a dedicated research and testing platform at the Platform of Advanced Photon Source Technology (PAPS). The unit SDD has an effective area of 12 mm², and the array SDD consists of a 2x10 array, with 10 mm²/pixel. the Low-noise ASIC chips employ the reset preamplifier technology to amplify the signals from the SDD. The readout electronics utilize high-speed ADC and FPGA for signal acquisition and processing. The development and performance testing of both unit and array SDD sensors have already been achieved, with the unit sensor exhibited a leakage current of 10pA@ -20°C. After system integration and testing, the single-unit SDD detector achieved an energy resolution of 160 eV@5.9 keV (-20°C), and the 20-unit array-SDD detector reached an energy resolution of 300 eV@ 13.6 keV. The maximum counting rate for a single channel can reach about 1 Mcps.

Speaker: Ziyu Bao (Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS)

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poster-ZiyuBao.pdf

29 Miniaturization Achievements and Performance Enhancements in the New Generations of ArduSiPM All-in-One Detector Technologies

The INFN Roma1 group has designed a new structure of all-in-one scintillator particle detectors, ArduSiPM, exploiting the latest innovations in silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) and System on Chip (SoC) technology.

We have minimized the external components to the analog ones, using intensively the internal peripherals of the microcontroller, making these devices compact and high-performance. Using firmware and off-the-shelf SoCs, instead of custom ASICs, reduces costs, accelerates development, and eases upgrades to new commercial SoCs.

Following this achievement, we are developing new generations of detectors that are smaller and more performant, first with MICRO and now with LITE-SLPD (Lightweight Silicon Pixel Detector), research projects by INFN.

The second generation was realized with Cosmo ArduSiPM, more powerful, compact, and suitable for space missions. Utilizing the Microchip SAMV71 320 MHz, ARM®Cortex®M7, including a Radiation-Tolerant version, this innovative detector incorporates two independent channels within a CubeSat form factor, weighing only 40 grams.
Additionally, a third generation, called NanoArduSiPM, characterized by even more compact dimensions (half the size), is currently undergoing testing.
Our compact electronic system cuts the need for external data acquisition systems and ASICs, allowing the CPU to perform edge computing functions.
The detector, capable of measuring the rate, the arrival time (with a resolution of 7 ns for the second and third generation, correlated to the main clock of the SoC), and the number of photons arriving on the SiPM, is ideal for radiation monitoring and highly sensitive photon detection.
Coupled with a fast plastic scintillator, this technology is used as a cosmic ray counter, trigger, or beam losses monitor in several experimental activities, meanwhile it can be used gamma detector with inorganic scintillating crystals, such as cesium iodide (CsI) or bismuth germanate (BGO)
Moreover, the firmware of Cosmo ArduSiPM can be configured for fast analysis and to produce the gamma spectrum.

Speaker: Francesco Iacoangeli (INFN - Roma 1)

Picture_F_Iacoangeli.jpg

Poster - ArduSiPMTecpdf.pdf

30 A large-area SiPM readout plane for the ePIC-dRICH detector at the EIC: realisation and beam test results

The ePIC experiment at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) includes a dual-radiator RICH (dRICH) detector for PID in the forward region. The dRICH will be equipped with 3x3 mm2 silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) for Cherenkov light detection over a surface of ~3 m2 (~300k readout channels), representing the first HEP application of SiPMs for single-photon detection. SiPMs are chosen for their low cost and high efficiency in magnetic fields (~1 T at the dRICH location). However, as SiPMs are not radiation hard, attention and careful testing is required to preserve single-photon counting capabilities and maintain the dark count rates (DCR) below ~100 kHz/mm2. DCR control can be achieved with operation at low temperature and recovery of the radiation damage via high-temperature annealing cycles. The integration of the SiPMs precise timing with fast time-to-digital converter (TDC) electronics helps to reduce further the effect of DCR as background signal.

In this talk we present the current status of the R&D performed for the ePIC-dRICH detector at the EIC. A special focus will be given to the beam test results obtained with the dRICH prototype SiPM optical readout. A large-area readout plane consisting of a total of 1280 3x3 mm² SiPM sensors was built and tested with particle beams at CERN-PS in October 2023. The photodetector is modular and based on a novel EIC-driven prototype photodetection unit (PDU) developed by INFN, which integrates 256 SiPM pixel sensors, cooling and TDC electronics in a volume of ~ 5 x 5 x 14 cm³. The data have been collected with a complete chain of front-end and readout electronics based on the ALCOR chip, developed by INFN Torino. This presentation will highlight the features of the PDU and the performance of the full dRICH SiPM prototype system that successfully recorded Cherenkov photon rings.

Speaker: Chiara Alice (INFN - Torino)

CAlice_PM2024_ePICposter_v1.pdf

IMG_3772.jpeg

31 Large Area Picosecond Photodetector for the Upgrade II of the LHCb RICH

The LHCb experiment is one of the four large detectors at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) accelerator at CERN, performing searches for new physics through studies of CP-violation and decays of heavy-flavour hadrons.
The RICH (Ring Imaging Cherenkov) detectors play a key role in particle identification.
An intense R&D programme to look for suitable candidates for the planned LHCb Upgrade II has been launched.
A good photon detector candidate should be capable of imaging single photons with outstanding time resolution, high granularity and low dark count rate, in order to achieve the required particle identification performance in the radiation environment of the High-Lumi LHC Era.
One of the possible candidates under investigation is the Large Area Picosecond Photon Detector (LAPPD), fabricated by industrial partner Incom (US).
The Generation-II LAPPD is equipped with a capacitively coupled backplane. The first performance results are presented testing the LAPPD with the backplane supplied directly by the company with a pixel size of $24\times 24 ~$mm$^2$. Furthermore, the LAPPD has been characterised with a custom backplane with improved granularity, with a readout pixel size of $3\times3~$mm$^2$.
This helped to enhance the spatial resolution of the detector, allowing at the same time the connection of this board to a FastIC based fast electronic readout that has been developed and tested by the LHCb RICH group, in collaboration with the University of Barcelona.
The LAPPD coupled to the fast electronics was tested at CERN SPS in September 2023. The setup and measurements performed with the particle beam will be presented.

Speaker: Federica Oliva (The University of Edinburgh)

FOliva_pic.jpg

LAPPD_PisaMeeting_FOliva_last.pdf

32 Development of RICH detector with SiPM readout for the charmed baryon spectroscopy experiment (E50) at J-PARC

The J-PARC E50 experiment aims for charmed baryon spectroscopy utilising the high-momentum secondary particle beam line (π20) at the J-PARC hadron experimental facility. Charmed baryons(𝑌𝑐∗+) will be produced in the reaction 𝜋− + 𝑝 → 𝐷∗− + 𝑌𝑐∗+ with a beam momentum of 20 GeV/c. The charmed baryons will be identified by reconstructing 𝐷∗− from its decay particles (𝐾+  𝜋− 𝜋−) and calculating the missing mass of the reaction. A Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector (RICH) is being developed in order to identify those decay particles which will be produced in a wide momentum range of 2−16 GeV/c.
A test detector was constructed. It consists of an aerogel Cherenkov radiator with refractive index n = 1.04 for particle identification in the low-momentum region, a spherical mirror with a curvature radius of 3 m, and a photon detection surface equipped with a hollow light concentrator and Multi-Pixel Photon Counters (MPPC).  
Test experiments were conducted at the Research Center for Electron Photon Science, Tohoku University (ELPH) using positrons with a momentum of 0.8 GeV/c. 
Parameters such as the thickness of the radiator, MPPC operating conditions are optimised. We also tested two types of cone-shaped light guides with entrance diameters of 50 mm and 30 mm, each having depths of 120 mm and 33 mm. The exit diameter was set to 8.5 mm to match the MPPC array used. The obtained result was compared with a GEANT4 simulation.
We will report an overall design of the detector, the result of the test experiment, including the angular resolution of the test detector and finally the perspective toward constructing the final version.

Speaker: Taiga Toda (Osaka University)

pisa_meeting_poster.pdf

presenter.jpg

33 Timing resolution of an LAPPD prototype measured with CERN test beams

Large Area Picosecond PhotoDetectors (LAPPDs) are photosensors based on MicroChannel Plate (MCP) technology with about 400 cm2 sensitive area. The external readout plane of a capacitively coupled LAPPD can be segmented into pads providing a spatial resolution down to 1 mm scale. The LAPPD signals have about 0.5 ns rise time followed by a slightly longer fall time and their amplitude reaches a few dozens of mV per single photoelectron.

I will report on the measurement of the time resolution of an LAPPD prototype in a test beam exercise at CERN PS. Most of the previous measurements of LAPPD time resolution had been performed with laser sources. I report time resolution measurements obtained through the detection of Cherenkov radiation emitted by high energy hadrons. Our approach has been demonstrated to be capable of measuring time resolutions as fine as 25-30 ps. The available prototype had performance limitations, which prevented us from applying the optimal high voltage setting. The measured time resolution for single photoelectrons is about 80 ps r.m.s.

Speaker: Jinky Agarwala (INFN - Trieste)

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poster-pdfA1-LAPPDn124_timingResults_16thPisaMeet_JAgarwala.pdf

34 A goniometric measurement system for reflectivity, diffusivity and transmittivity characterization in the VUV range.

The characterization in the VUV range of reflectivity, diffusivity and transmittivity of various components plays a crucial role in understanding and optimizing the performance of particle detectors exploiting the scintillation light coming from liquefied noble gases.

To this purpose a goniometric measurement system has been realized. The light produced by a deuterium lamp is wavelength selected by means of a diffraction grating with a resolution of few nanometers. The monochromatic light hits the sample under test. A calibrated VUV detector, mounted on a goniometric system, sample the transmitted and scattered photons at different angles.

In this presentation, the main technical characteristics and performances of the system are shown together with results coming from preliminary tests on different materials.

Speaker: Massimo Rossella (INFN - Pavia)

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Poster_Pisa_meeting_2024_reflectivity_def.pdf

35 Percival soft X-ray CMOS imager for Photon Science – status and prospects

Percival is a two-megapixel CMOS imager designed for the photon science community. It has a large, contiguous imaging area with many small pixels (4x4 cm2, 27x27 um2 pixels), high frame rate suitable for high-luminosity experiments and conventional FELs (design frame rate 300 Hz, proportionally faster in ROI operation), and dynamic range spanning single photon discrimination at 250 eV (noise floor 14e-) to 50000 photons per pixel per frame. This is achieved by a massively parallel architecture and automatic gain adjustment per pixel and frame. The sensor is backside-processed for high sensitivity to soft X-rays; imaging has been performed in the energy range 70 eV to 1keV.
First successful user experiments with the prototype sensor have been performed. The first-generation sensors still had some shortcomings, namely crosstalk hampering ADC functionality and frame rate, and non-uniformity due to bias variation over the sensor. These are addressed in a respin that was – in front-side illuminated version – delivered by the foundry in Jan 2024.
We describe the status of the project, show first glimpses of the respin improvements achieved, provide an impression from initial user experiments, and give an outlook to further development.

Speaker: Cornelia Wunderer (DESY)

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poster-Wunderer-2024-05-25_Percival_PisaMeeting_v2.pdf

12:50 Lunch break

Photo Detectors and Particle ID - Oral session

Conveners: Flavio Cavanna (FERMILAB), Ichiro Adachi (KEK)

36 The burst effect in SiPM at cryogenic temperature

Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are highly sensitive solid-state photodetectors consisting of a 2D array of small-size Avalanche Photodiodes (APDs) working in Geiger mode, connected in parallel and joined together on a common silicon substrate.
They have extraordinary features of high sensitivity down to single-photon level, fast timing and high dynamic-range while maintaining low-voltage operation, mechanical robustness and insensitivity to magnetic fields.
In addition, cryogenic operation of SiPMs allows to keep the dark count rate (DCR) at very low levels of mHz/mm$^2$, with respect to $\sim$hundreds of kHz/mm$^2$ at room temperature.
Due to all these good properties, they are a very promising photodetectors that could find applications in many field of physics, and in particular, during last years, they start to play a crucial role in the detection of scintillation light of noble liquids in dark matter and neutrino-physics experiments.
A newly discovered phenomenon occurring in some types of SiPM models when operated at liquid nitrogen temperature, has been recently discovered by our group (Guarise M., et al. "A newly observed phenomenon in the characterization of SiPMs at cryogenic temperature." JINSTRUM 16.10).
This phenomenon, which is extremely important especially for low noise applications, has been called bursts effect and consists in trains of consecutive avalanche events, characterized by a rate that is about 100 times higher than that of the single-event-uncorrelated dark counts. The net effect results in an overall increase of the DCR of the sensor when operated at cryogenic temperatures. We performed different kind of tests to understand the origin of this phenomenon and we also work in synergy with producers to try to find the internal mechanism at the basis of this behavior.
Preliminary results concerning the tests performed with SiPMs placed at LN2 temperature aimed to investigate the cause of this phenomenon, will be presented.

Speaker: Marco Guarise (INFN - Ferrara)

bursts_elba24_v0 (2).pdf

37 Characterization of the new FBK NUV SiPMs with low cross-talk probability

The increasing interest for Silicon PhotoMultipliers (SiPMs) in Astroparticle Physics applications is due to several attractive features compared to the other detectors like Photo Multiplier Tubes (PMT). The great advancement in solid-state technology allowed SiPMs to have a higher Photo Detection Efficiency (PDE) in the near ultraviolet (NUV) region, a fast response, single photon sensitivity and low bias voltages. These properties make the SiPM technology a promising candidate for future astroparticle physics experiments.
In FBK several technologies have been developed for SiPMs. The ones sensitive in the blue and NUV region of the spectrum have been improved by increasing the photon detection efficiency and reducing the correlated noise. This have been obtained through an optimization of the high-field region within the Single Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPADs) and of the isolation among the different SPADs.
The FBK NUV-HD technology have deep trenches filled with silicon dioxide between one cell and the neighbouring ones, providing electrical and optical isolation, thus reducing the cross-talk probability. A recent improvement of such technology is based on the introduction of metal inside the trenches (called NUV-HD-MT technology) to further increase the optical isolation and therefore to improve the photon number resolution.
Here we report the results of the functional characterization of 6 × 6 mm^2 and 1 × 1 mm^2 FBK NUV-HD-MT SiPMs, developed to detect Cherenkov photons produced in atmospheric showers with the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Technique (IACT). In this sense, a low cross-talk probability of the SiPM is useful both for improving the energy resolution of the primary cosmic ray and for reducing the rate of false triggers. However, the good NUV-HD-MT characteristics are also suitable for many other applications requiring high sensitivity in the NUV region, e.g., in space-based high energy cosmic radiation detection, scintillation light detection in medical imaging, etc.

Speaker: Pierpaolo Loizzo (Università di Trento / INFN)

talk-Characterization of the new FBK NUV SiPMs with low crosstalk probability.pdf

38 The SiPM-based Cherenkov cameras developed for the ASTRI-Horn and ASTRI Mini-Array gamma-ray projects

The interaction between gamma-ray photons and the Earth atmosphere generates air showers composed of very high-energy particles which, moving through the air, generate Cherenkov light flashes. These flashes can be detected to study astronomical sources emitting very high-energy gamma rays in the TeV energy range.
Here, we present the camera design adopted for the nine innovative dual-mirror imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes of the ASTRI Mini-Array. The Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) is leading the project. The telescopes are hosted at the Observatorio del Teide (Tenerife, Spain) to observe at high sensitivity and angular resolution the gamma-ray Universe in the 1 – 200 TeV energy band. The cameras currently being implemented in the ASTRI Mini-Array are the result of the industrial evolution of the system that has been operational at the ASTRI-Horn telescope since 2016. This telescope is located at the INAF observing station "M.C. Fracastoro" on the Etna in Sicily, Italy. The ASTRI-Horn telescope has been developed as a pathfinder telescope and enabled us to gain valuable experience in performing gamma-ray observations using the air-Cherenkov technique with dual-mirror telescopes and cameras based on multipixel Silicon Photo Multiplier (SiPM) photodetectors. The new ASTRI cameras are also based on SiPM, making use of fast-acquisition electronics peak detectors, characterized by low power consumption. The thermal control and calibration subsystems of the focal plane, embedded into the envelope, make these cameras very effective, reliable, and easy to install during the observation session. These characteristics are fundamental to maintaining a fully operative array with many telescopes to be operated. In this contribution, we present the main features of the ASTRI Mini-Array cameras. Moreover, we will discuss the development phases and results of the first camera realized with the new layout, which is being installed on the first of the nine ASTRI telescopes.

Speaker: Giuseppe Sottile (INAF IASF PA)

16th_Pisa_Meeting_ASTRI_Presentation_GSottile_rev3.pdf

39 Features and performances of the DUNE Far Detectors photon detection system

The Photon Detection System (PDS) of the first two DUNE far detectors (FD1 and FD2) is composed of 6000 and 672 photon detection units respectively, named X-Arapuca.
The PDS will complement and boost the DUNE LArTPC for the detection of non beam events: the prompt light detection will enable the trigger and the calorimetry of the supernova neutrinos, and improve the vertex reconstruction of the beam ones.
The FD1 PDS is placed behind the anode planes of the LArTPC, while the FD2 PDS is located on the cathodic plane, biased at 320 kV, therefore leading to extra challenges for both the power and the readout of the X-Arapuca device.
The X-Arapuca is a photon trap with two light downshifting stages, where light is collected to SiPMs by a large area Wavelength Shifting light guide. It is an assembly of several components, whose grade and coupling determines its Photon Detection Efficiency (PDE), and consequently the PDS sensitivity of the DUNE physics reaches.
We will present the FD1 and FD2 PDS and discuss their individual features, with a special focus on the photon collector components and on the performances achieved by the X-Arapuca units measured in laboratory and in the CERN facility at the Neutrino Platform, where the small scale prototypes of both PDS are being tested.
We will also present the possible changes to the baseline design of both FD1 and FD2 X-Arapuca that will allow to further enhance their PDE.
The FD1 and FD2 scale 1:20 prototypes at the NP04 and NP02 CERN neutrino platform instrumented with the baseline versions of the X-Arapuca will be operated with Liquid Argon in the first semester of 2024.

Speaker: Claudia Brizzolari (INFN - Milano Bicocca)

CBrizzolari_PisaMeeting24.pdf

40 Operation of the Belle II imaging Time-Of-Propagation (iTOP) detector before and after the first long shutdown

The iTOP detector is a Cherenkov detector specialized on particle identification at Belle II. The SuperKEKB accelerator collides electrons and positrons with a design luminosity of 6*10^(35)/(cm^2 s). In order to exploit the high collision rate Belle II has a trigger rate of up to 30 kHz.
The iTOP detector uses quartz bars as the source of Cherenkov photons. The photons are reflected inside the bars until they hit photomultipliers installed at one end. The spatial distribution and precise arrival times of the detected photons are used to reconstruct the Cherenkov angle and particle flight time. To achieve a good pion-kaon separation the photon arrival times have to be measured with a resolution of 100 ps. Microchannel plate photomultipliers together with dedicated high-speed electronics for 2.7 GSa/s waveform sampling in 8192 channels are used to achieve this requirement.
After four years of operation, the experiment entered its first long shutdown phase in 2022. Aging components of iTOP were exchanged and the detector was prepared for data-taking at increasing luminosities and backgrounds after the long shutdown. In this talk the design of the iTOP detector will be shown and experience and results from operation will be discussed together with an outlook on future running conditions.

Speaker: Martin Bessner (University of Hawaii)

Bessner_TOP.pdf

17:10 Coffee break

41 First results on the performance of the upgraded LHCb RICH detectors

With the start of LHC Run 3 the LHCb experiment is designed to run at an instantaneous luminosity five times larger with respect to previous running periods, aiming to collect $\text{L}=50~\text{fb}^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions data by the end of Run 4. In addition, thanks to a trigger-less readout and a full software trigger, the selection efficiency for fully hadronic decay channels of heavy hadrons increases up to a factor two. The LHCb RICH detectors have been completely renewed to address unprecedented occupancy values, ensuring outstanding charged hadron discrimination in the more demanding Run 3 environment and at the maximum LHC interaction rate. This process is detailed, outlining the automated calibration procedures of the RICH system to achieve optimal signal efficiency and background rejection during the initial stages of the Run 3 data-taking. The early performance of the newly installed detectors is presented, including the determination of figures of merit such as the Cherenkov angle resolution. It is also reported that unprecedented particle identification capabilities at a hadron collider are obtained, already approaching the design level and outperforming those of Run 1 and 2.

Speaker: Edoardo Franzoso (Università di Ferrara / INFN)

RichOpPisaMeeting.pdf

42 The TORCH time-of-flight detector for the Upgrade-II of the LHCb experiment

The TORCH (Time Of internally Reflected Cherenkov light) detector is proposed for the high-luminosity Upgrade-II of the LHCb experiment, with planned start-up after 2033. The aim of TORCH is to measure time-of-flight with a 15 ps resolution per charged-particle track, providing particle identification over the momentum range 2-15 GeV/c. TORCH is to be located approximately 9.5m downstream of the LHCb interaction point, and comprises 18 modules of highly-polished 1 cm-thick quartz plates, each of area 250 x 66 cm$^2$. Cherenkov photons radiated in the quartz are focussed onto an array of fast-timing micro-channel-plate detectors (MCP-PMTs) which each have a pixelation of 8 x 64 within an active area of 53 x 53 mm$^2$. Test-beam studies have previously shown that a timing resolution of 70 ps per single photon can be achieved on a half-sized module; an update will be given on test-beam results from the CERN PS in 2022. In a parallel programme, a light-weight carbon-fibre support structure for the full-scale module has been designed, which holds the quartz in a vertical position with minimal contact points. A novel exo-skeleton jigging system is used to bond the optical elements and support each module during installation. Recent advances in the development of a 16 x 96 pixelated MCP-PMT will be also be described. Finally, the current status of TORCH preparation for the LHCb Upgrade-II experiment will be presented.

Speaker: Thomas Blake (University of Warwick)

tblake_torch_pisa.pdf

43 A new hydrogen-filled Cherenkov detector for Kaon tagging at the NA62 experiment at CERN

To ensure the necessary precision for the $K^+ \rightarrow \pi^+ \nu \bar\nu$ analysis, the NA62 kaon identification detector is required to have a time resolution better than 100 ps, at least 95% kaon tagging efficiency, and a pion mis-identification probability of less than $10^{−4}$. For the data collected so far, the tagging of kaons in the NA62 beam has been performed with a Cherenkov detector filled with nitrogen gas as radiator. A new detector using hydrogen (CEDAR-H) as the Cherenkov radiator has been built for the kaon identification in NA62. The CEDAR-H leads to a reduction of beam particle scattering in the gas and background from pile-up events in the detector. The CEDAR-H was commissioned in a two-weeks test beam at CERN at the end of 2022, and approved by the NA62 collaboration to be used in data taking from 2023. The test beam results, commissioning and detector performance on the NA62 beam line are presented in this talk.

Speaker: Chandler Kenworthy (University of Birmingham)

CBK_CEDARHTalk_PM2024.pdf

44 Characterization of hybrid photodetector prototype based on microchannel plates and the Timepix4 ASIC

A novel single-photon detector based on a vacuum tube with transmission photocathode, microchannel plates and the Timepix4 CMOS ASIC used as read-out anode is presented. Timepix4, developed by the Medipix4 Collaboration, consists of a 512x448 pixel matrix with 55 microns pitch. Each pixel is equipped with amplifier and discriminator, and a TDC allows for precise measurement of the hit time-of-arrival and time-over-threshold. The ASIC features a data-driven architecture producing up to 160 Gb/s that are handled by FPGA-based external electronics with flexible design, used as well as control board. This device is expected to allow detection of up to 1 billion photons per second over an area of 7 cm^2, with simultaneous measurement of position and timing for each photon with resolutions of 5-10 microns and 50-100 ps respectively.
Initial characterisation of the Timepix4 ASIC using a 100-micron thick n-on-p Si sensor illuminated by an infrared pulsed picosecond laser have demonstrated a timing resolution of 110 ps per single pixel hit, after precise frequency mapping and calibration over the whole matrix. A timing resolution better than 50 ps was measured illuminating a cluster of multiple pixels exploiting oversampling.
The first hybrid photodetector prototypes have been recently produced. A first characterisation of their performance will be presented.

---

The DRD4 international Collaboration has been formed at the beginning of 2024 following the ECFA Detector R&D Roadmap. The scope of the Collaboration, which is anchored at CERN, is to bundle and boost R&D activities in photodetector technology and particle identification techniques for building future high-energy physics (HEP) experiments and facilities. DRD4 also covers scintillating fibre tracking as well as transition radiation detectors based on solid state X-ray detectors. A brief overview of the scientific scope and organisation of DRD4 will be presented, with a particular focus on the strategic role of the Collaboration for the future of HEP.

Speaker: Massimiliano Fiorini (Università di Ferrara / INFN)

Fiorini - Pisa Meeting - 27 May 2024.pdf

45 Calibration and Performance of the First Depfet Ladder of the DSSC X-ray Imager

A modified Depleted P-Channel Field Effect Transistor (DEPFET) providing non-linear signal response is the distinctive feature of the 1 Mpixel DSSC camera, aiming at ultra-fast imaging of soft X-rays at the European XFEL. The calibration of the non-linear DEPFET-based readout is the key to reach simultaneously both single-photon resolution and high dynamic range but it is also the major challenge.
The presentation will discuss the main calibration issues and the chosen techniques and will present the results of a thorough experimental qualification of the performance of first DEPFET ladder (512 x 128). It will focus on gain calibration, on the spectroscopic performances, on the measurement and parametrization of the non-linear response and on the impact of high-intensity effects. Correction techniques to mitigate the impact of ADC non-linearities has also been tested. The results show the achievement of noise levels below 10 electrons rms and an input range of several MeV per pixel per pulse, matching the goal of single-photon imaging down to the lowest photon energy foreseen at the European XFEL (0.25 keV) and frame frequency up to 4.5 MHz.

Speaker: Andrea Castoldi (Politecnico di Milano / INFN)

talk_Pisa2024_work_v3nc.pdf

Integration and Detector Systems - Poster session

This session will be on display on Monday afternoon
Link to the contributions

46 Lightweight Thermal Management Strategies for the Silicon Detectors of CBM at FAIR

The Compressed Baryonic Matter Experiment (CBM) at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion
Research (FAIR) is a fixed-target spectrometer designed to explore the high-density regime of the
QCD phase diagram at √sN N = 2.9 - 4.9 GeV (Au-Au collisions) with interaction rates reaching
10 MHz. The Inner Tracker is compromised of the Micro Vertex Detector (MVD) and the Silicon
Tracking System (STS) housed inside a superconducting dipole magnet.
The first part of this contribution pertains to the CBM-MVD which uses CMOS MAPS for
its four detection planes, offering high spatial (∼ 5 μm) and time (∼ 5 μs) resolution, with good
radiation tolerance (∼ 5 MRad, ∼ 7 × 1013 neq/cm2). The MVD sensors will operate in vac-
uum at ≈ 0◦C by mechanically supporting them on Thermal Pyrolytic Graphite carriers (TPG,
∼ 1500 W/m·K), conducting the heat to actively cooled heat sinks (3MTM NOVECTM 649) out-
side the physics aperture to ensure a material budget of 0.3% − 0.5% X0 per plane. There will be
special focus on the preparation of TPG carriers which feature pros (thermal conductivity, price)
and cons (surface quality, softness). Solutions developed during prototyping will be presented,
recommending employing TPG in high-precision vertex trackers.
The second part of this contribution pertains to the CBM-STS which uses double-sided silicon
micro-strip sensors for its eight detection planes, offering high track reconstruction efficiency (>
95%) and momentum resolution (< 2%). The silicon sensors are mechanically held by light-weight
carbon fibre ladders, while the electronics along with its cooling are placed outside the physics
aperture to provide a material budget of 0.3% − 2% X0 per plane. The STS sensors will operate at
≈ 10◦C to mitigate the radiation damage of 1 × 1014 neq/cm2. There will be special focus on the
thermal management strategy of using liquid-assisted air cooling. This approach involves cooling
silicon sensors with impinging cold air jets to remove the sensor power dissipation (∼ 54 mW/cm2),
while the 40 kW power dissipation from electronics is cooled with liquid 3MTM NOVECTM 649.
Detailed experimental investigation will be presented verifying the cooling concept with a realistic
STS thermal demonstrator.

Speaker: Mr Franz Matejcek (IKF Frankfurt University)

picture-Matejcek_PisaMeeting.jpg

poster-Matejcek_PisaMeeting.pdf

video-Matejcek_PisaMeeting.mp4

47 Operational experience and performance of the Belle II Silicon Vertex Detector after the first SuperKEKB Long Shut down

At the beginning of 2024 data taking of the Belle II experiment resumed after the Long Shutdown 1 (LS1), primarily required to install a new two-layer DEPFET detector (PXD) and upgrade components of the accelerator. The whole silicon tracker (VXD) was extracted from Belle II, and the outer strip detector (SVD) was split into its two halves to allow access for the PXD installation. Then a new VXD was commissioned for the start of the new run.

In a higher luminosity regime, it is crucial to prevent the SVD maximum occupancy exceeding the limit for acceptable tracking performance. The excellent hit-time resolution in SVD can be exploited for background rejection. We describe the implementation of a novel procedure to group SVD hits event-by-event, based on their time. By using the grouping information during reconstruction, off-time tracks are efficiently rejected so that the fake rate is significantly reduced while preserving the tracking efficiency. The SVD hit-time is also used to estimate the collision time (event-T0) with a much faster online reconstruction with respect to the estimate provided by the drift chamber, which is crucial in a high luminosity regime.

Studies on the radiation damage have shown that, although the sensor current and the strip noise have shown a moderate increase due to radiation, the performance will not be seriously degraded during the lifespan of the detector.

Speaker: Fumiaki Otani (University of Tokyo)

Picture-BelleII_Fumiaki.JPG

Poster-BelleII_Fumiaki.pdf

Video-BelleII_Fumiaki.mp4

48 THE KM3NeT Broadcast optical system network

The optical data transport system of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea will provide more than 6000 optical modules in the detector arrays with a point-to-point optical connection to the control stations onshore. The ARCA and ORCA detectors of KM3NeT are being installed at a depth of about 3500m and 2500 m, respectively and their distance to the control stations is about 100 kilometers and 40 kilometers. In particular, the two detectors are optimised for the detection of cosmic neutrinos with energies above about 1 TeV (ARCA) and for the detection of atmospheric neutrinos with energies in the range 1 GeV–1 TeV (ORCA).
The expected maximum data rate is 200 Mbps per optical module. The implemented optical data transport system matches the layouts of the networks of electro-optical cables and junction boxes in the deep sea. For
efficient use of the fibres in the system the technology of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing is applied.
To comply with the scientific goals of KM3NeT, accurate time calibration between the many optical modules in the detector arrays is essential for the reconstruction of the neutrino events. For the first time in a deep sea neutrino telescope the White Rabbit protocol over Ethernet is used for the clock distribution. Downstream slow control and base module signals are broadcasted to all optical modules in the detector array. Synchronisation is achieved by communication between a White Rabbit master onshore and a White Rabbit slave unit inside the optical modules. The KM3NeT broadcast optical data transport system will be presented.

Speaker: Sara Rita Pulvirenti (INFN - LNS)

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Poster_PM2024_KM3NeT_Pulvirenti.pdf

49 The high count-rate self-triggering Silicon Tracking System of the CBM experiment at FAIR – design, series assembly, upgrade options –

The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment is under construction at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Darmstadt, Germany. CBM will investigate matter at highest baryonic densities in collisions of nuclear beams with targets at center of mass energies $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.9 - 4.9GeV. Because of the long beam extraction technique employed at the SIS100 synchrotron, CBM´s data collection can be based on streaming time-stamped detector data into a compute farm. Event determination and physics analysis are performed there online, allowing for collision rates up to $10~$MHz.
CBM´s core tracking detector is the Silicon Tracking System, operating in a $1~$Tm dipole magnetic field. Its building block is a module comprising of a double-sided microstrip sensor read out through ultra-thin microcables by self-triggering STS-XYTER ASICs, featuring $4.8~$ns time resolution. The read-out electronics is placed at the periphery of the detector. Gigabit optical links connect to the acquisition system. Up to 10 detector modules are mounted onto a carbon-fiber ladder with 0.3% – 1.5%$~$X$_0$ material budget. The full system comprises 876 modules on 106 ladders forming 8 tracking layers. The system achieves momentum resolution better 2%. The detector mainframe has thermally insulating walls. Due to radiation accumulating to 10$^{14}$ n$_{equiv.~1-MeV}$, runaway of sensor current will be avoided with air cooling down to 0 deg C. The readout and powering electronics, dissipating up to $40~$kW, will be cooled through contact to a cold liquid. The mechanical design of the detector in two independent groups of tracking stations allows for flexibility with replacements or upgrades.
The STS components have been intensively tested, lately in particular in the FAIR phase 0 demonstrator experiment mCBM at SIS18. We overview the detector concept, report on the tests and ongoing series production, and address options for upgrades.

Speaker: Johann Heuser (GSI - Darmstadt)

picture-J.Heuser-PISA2024.jpg

poster-J.Heuser-PISA2024.pdf

video-J.Heuser-PISA2024.mp4

50 The LaBr3-based detection setup for the FAMU experiment at RIKEN-RAL

The FAMU experiment (Fisica degli Atomi MUonici), led by INFN at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK), is designed to measure the Zemach radius of the proton in muonic hydrogen (μH) with 1% relative uncertainty. A 55 MeV/c negative muon beam is produced by the ISIS synchrotron at the RIKEN-RAL muon facility. The beam is directed against a gaseous hydrogen-oxygen target, where a pulsed custom-made Mid-InfraRed (MIR) laser with a tunable wavelength around 6.8 μm is also injected. The aim is to determine the laser wavelength that stimulates the resonant spin-flip in μH atoms, which is a function of the proton Zemach radius. The experiment has started data collection in 2023. A set of LaBr3 scintillating crystals, supported by a HPGe detector, are used to detect the delayed muonic oxygen radiation, which marks the transition. The detector setup is in continuous development. In particular, the detector configuration is currently being upgraded with new detectors read by SiPMs to enhance signal-to-noise ratio and improve time performance.

Speaker: Riccardo Rossini (INFN - Pavia)

photo-PM2024_Rossini.jpg

poster-PM2024_Rossini_FAMU.pdf

51 The detector for the MUonE experiment at CERN.

The Fermilab Muon g-2 experiment observes a more than 5$\sigma$ discrepancy
in the anomalous magnetic moment a$_\mu$ with respect to the Standard Model prediction, which might be explained by hadronic corrections, whose theoretical prediction is difficult and uncertain. There are few ways to check this and the MUonE experiment proposes to do so by a unique direct measurement, which is extremely challenging. The essence of the measurement is a precise evaluation of the differential cross section for $\mu$-$e$ elastic scattering, in conjunction with recent theoretical formulations based on dispersive calculations. The apparatus is based on a series of identical tracking stations comprised of a Be or C target and a series of downstream tracking planes, using novel silicon microstrip 2S-modules developed for the CMS tracker upgrade. Much of the required information can be obtained from the angular distribution of the two outgoing particles in each event, whose directions should be precisely measured. The detector also includes an electromagnetic calorimeter and a muon filter to aid the identification of the secondary particles, and a beam monitoring station to measure the beam momentum on an event by event basis with high resolution. Careful control of systematic errors is vital for success.
A series of tests has been carried out in the CERN M2 beamline with 160 GeV muons, in collaboration with CMS, to commission modules, assess performance and provide a proof-of-principle demonstration of the MUonE experiment concept. The modules are read out at 40 MHz, in CMS to send data to the L1 trigger, which is exploited by MUonE to allow data taking with 50 MHz muons. Results from these tests will be presented with preliminary data on $\mu$-$e$ scattering and the system performance. Ideas on how the apparatus can be improved for the final experiment will also be discussed.

Speaker: Anna Driutti (Università di Pisa / INFN)

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poster_MUonE_PM2024.pdf

52 Challenges and solutions in the mechanical design of the KM3NeT ARCA Base Module

The goal of KM3NeT ARCA is to search for astrophysical neutrinos with a neutrino telescope operating on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, at 3,500 m depth, for more than 15 years. The neutrino telescope is made of Detection Units (DU) each consisting of 18 Digital Optical Modules (DOMs), a Vertical Electro-Optical Cable (VEOC) and a Base Module (BM) whose purpose is to collect the data arriving from the 18 DOMs via the VEOC, pack and transmit them to the on-shore station through a sub-marine infrastructure and to distribute to the DOMs the communications broadcasted from shore. The BM is built with a titanium cylindrical container hosting optics, electronics and power boards. The mechanical requirements placed on it are significant, as it represents a single point of failure for the DU. The main requirements are that it has to be water tight and mechanically resistant to an external water pressure up to 350 bar, it has to be able to stand all mechanical stresses along its life, it has to provide excellent corrosion resistance for 15 years at least in sea water and it has to host all internal components safely, by guaranteeing an adequate heat dissipation. The solutions to solve all such design challenges are here presented. Particular emphasis is given to the tests that have been performed for qualification and to the performance of BMs operating underwater since 2015.

Speaker: Irene Sgura (INFN - Bari)

Irene SGURA picture.png

Poster_PM2024_KM3NeT_Sgura.pdf

53 Longevity study of CMS Muon Detector facing the High Luminosity LHC phase

The forthcoming High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) program presents a formidable challenge for the constituent elements of the CMS Muon Detector. Current systems, encompassing Drift Tubes (DT), Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC), and Cathode Strip Chambers (CSC), are tasked with operating under conditions of 5 times higher instantaneous luminosity than originally designed, necessitating endurance for approximately 10 times the anticipated LHC integrated luminosity. Addressing the high-rate environment while preserving optimal performance requires the incorporation of additional Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) and improved Resistive Plate Chamber (iRPC) detectors in the innermost region of the CMS forward muon spectrometer. The performance of all subdetectors must ensure sustained operation in such extreme conditions. To meet these challenges, accelerated irradiation studies have been conducted across all muon systems, predominantly at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++). This presentation will provide an overview of the latest findings on the longevity of CMS Muon Detector systems after around 10 years of operation and following the extensive integrated charge exposure at GIF++.

Speaker: Joao Pedro Gomes Pinheiro (Rio de Janeiro State University)

picture-joao.jpeg

Poster-A1.pdf

poster-LONGEVITY_CMS_MUON_SYSTEM_pisa_meeting_2024.pdf

54 The upgraded laser calibration system of the ICARUS experiment at FNAL

The ICARUS-T600 LAr TPC is presently used as far detector of the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program at FNAL, to search for sterile neutrinos. As it is placed at shallow depth, in addition to a full coverage cosmic ray tagger, a system based on 360 large area Hamamatsu R5912-MOD PMTs was used, to reduce cosmic ray background. An important requirement is the calibration in gain and time of each PMT. Laser pulses from a low-power laser diode at 405 nm arrived to a 1x46 optical switch and then to UHV flanges, by 20 meters long optical patches. Light was then delivered to the ten PMTs connected to a single flange, by 7m long injection optical patches. AS only ten PMTs may be calibrated in a single run, the full calibration procedure was lengthy. The use of an optical switch was compulsory as the power of the laser system was low. It was not clear if a further division of the laser light by a factor 1/36 (~1/100 taking into account also optical couplings) using instead an optical splitter could give a sizeable light signal to all PMTs. Dedicated on site measurements, with the initial laser calibration system, shown that it was feasible. Thus to reduce calibration time (by a factor 1/36) and have also the possibility to intercalibrate in time all PMTs, the optical switch was replaced by a custom 1x40 optical splitter. As respect to the original optical switch, the custom splitter had to provide similar delays (within 100 ps) and light outputs (within 10 %) at all output pigtails. Gain equalization of PMTs has reached a 1% resolution. In this procedure data from background photons were also used. Time calibration is in progress. The status of the upgraded laser system will be reported, together with present performances.

Speaker: Maurizio Giorgio Bonesini (INFN - Milano Bicocca)

picture_MB.JPG

poster_MB.pdf

55 The description of the steps of the Q&A test and detector module assembly of the CBM-STS

The Silicon Tracking System (STS) is the core detector system of the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Darmstadt, Germany. CBM will study matter at highest baryonic densities in collisions of nuclear beams with a stationary target. The long latency for identification and the changing signature of the events drive us to use self-triggered streaming readout. CBM data collection will be based on time-stamped detector data into a compute farm. Event reconstruction and physics analysis are performed online at collision rates up to 10 MHz.

In the presented work we will discuss step by step how the detector components are rigorously selected and prepared for assembling. It all starts with careful testing of the readout ASICs at the wafer level or in a manual process. The various parameters are recorded to select the chip. The next step is to test the tap-bonding to the micro cables and later the 16 chip-cables that are bonded to the silicon strip sensor. All test results are stored and available for later use in a specially designed database using custom software that is applied to each step in the assembly process. More than ten percent of the modules will be produced by the time of the presentation so that an overview on the production can be presented.

Speaker: Dr Irakli Keshelashvili (GSI - Darmstadt)

picture-I.Keshelashvili.jpg

poster-Keshelashvili-CBM-STS.pdf

56 The ATLAS RPC Phase II upgrade for High Luminosity LHC era

RPC detectors play a crucial role in triggering events containing muons in the central region of ATLAS. In view of the HL-LHC program, the existing RPC system, consisting of six independent concentric cylindrical detector layers each providing a full space time localization of hits, is currently facing a significant upgrade. In the next few years, 306 triplets of new generation RPCs will be installed in the innermost region of the ATLAS Muon Barrel Spectrometer, increasing from 6 to 9 the number of tracking layers, doubling the trigger lever arm. This allows a substantial enhancement of the present trigger redundancy, increasing the coverage from 76% to 96% approximately. The new chamber design is based on a very efficient integration of an innovative front-end electronics within the detector Faraday cage, allowing to operate the RPCs with an order of magnitude less of average charge per count, correspondingly increasing rate capability and longevity. Fitting new chambers in the narrow space left in ATLAS inner barrel was a challenge, achieved by optimizing RPC materials and thickness, featuring a 1 mm gas gap (instead of 2 mm), and 1.4 mm resistive electrodes (instead of 1.8 mm). Both sides of RPCs are readout by strip panels oriented to measure the bending coordinate of the muon spectrometer, while the second coordinate is reconstructed from the time difference of signal drift at opposite detector's ends. To achieve such
results, a 100 ps precise TDC has been integrated in the front-end electronics ASIC. The expected time resolution of a single 1 mm RPC gas gap is approximately 300 ps, and the possibility of a stand-alone Time of Flight measurement will have a huge impact on ATLAS searches for massive long-lived particles. An overview and the present status of the ATLAS RPC Phase II project will be presented.

Speaker: Gregorio Falsetti (INFN - Cosenza)

Falsetti_pisa_meeting_2024.pdf

57 Magnetometry for the Muon g-2 Experiment

The Muon $g-2$ Experiment at Fermilab aims to measure the muon anomalous magnetic moment with a precision of 140 parts per billion (ppb). The experiment collaboration has published the latest measurement based on the first three Runs (collected from 2018 to 2020) in August 2023 with a precision of 200 ppb. The experiment accumulated three more years of data, from 2020 to 2023, which are currently being analyzed. The additional statistics is sufficient to achieve and possibly exceed the goal of 100 ppb of final statistical uncertainty. As the statistical error gets reduced, increasing attention is dedicated to the study of the systematic uncertainties. Among them, one source is a magnetic transient generated by the fast kickers. In order to center the muon orbit into its final position in the storage ring, a 120 ns magnetic pulse of 240 G is issued by three kickers right after injection. This induces eddy currents in the kicker aluminum structure that last for several microseconds. To measure the 10 mG magnetic perturbations generated by the eddy currents, the INFN team developed a laser magnetometer based on the Faraday effect. This talk will describe the technical principles, the operations, and the data analysis of this very sensitive device.

Speaker: Antonio Gioiosa (INFN - Roma 2)

picture_157_gioiosa_PISA_MEETING_2024.jpeg

poster_157_gioiosa_PISA_MEETING_2024.pdf

58 Tracking system performance of the future SHADOWS experiment at CERN

The proposed SHADOWS experiment, Search for Hidden And Dark Objects With the SPS, will be a proton beam-dump experiment at the CERN SPS. Positioned off-axis to suppress background, SHADOWS will profit from the high intensity ECN3 proton beam line, to explore the existence of a wide range of feebly-interacting particles (FIPs). The detector, with dimensions of 2.5$\times$2.5 m$^2$ and a length of 34 m, is designed for optimal tracking and timing performance, facilitating the identification and reconstruction of various visible final states of FIP decays. The workhorse of SHADOWS is the tracking system for precise reconstruction of charged particle tracks and precise measurement of their momenta. It consists of four detector stations, two before and two after a warm dipole magnet, for the momentum reconstruction. As baseline detector technology we propose straw drift-tubes with 1 cm diameter and a single hit resolution of 150$\,\mu$m. The presentation will provide a general overview of the SHADOWS detector design, details on the tracking system and present a performance study based on simulation.

Speaker: Dr Shreya Roy (University of Heidelberg)

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poster_shreya_roy_pisa24.pdf

video_shreya_roy_pisa24.mp4

59 Detector design for a 10 TeV Muon Collider

A Muon Collider is being proposed as a next-generation facility. This collider would have unique advantages, as clean events, similar to electron-positron colliders, are possible, and high collision energy, comparable to that of hadron colliders, could be reached due to negligible beam radiation losses. The beam-induced background, produced by muon decays in the beams and subsequent interactions, as well as the incoherent e+/e- pairs production, reaches the interaction region and, finally, the detector presents unique challenges for particle reconstruction. The first detector concept for detecting 10 TeV muon-muon collisions has been studied, taking into account the physics requirements and the effects of the beam-induced background. The presentation will cover the design of the tracking and calorimeter systems, as well as the configuration of the magnet and the proposed value of the magnetic field. The performance on the most important physics benchmarks will also be presented.

Speaker: Elisa Di Meco (INFN - LNF)

IMG_4184.jpeg

Poster_MuonCollider_10 TeV_detector_verticale.pdf

60 The LHCb Mighty Tracker

The LHCb experiment at CERN is set to undergo a series of planned major upgrades to its detector system in the coming years, in preparation for the High Luminosity LHC. A new detector system for the downstream tracking stations, called Mighty Tracker, is proposed for installation during the long shutdown 4. The Mighty Tracker is of hybrid nature, comprising silicon pixels in the inner region and scintillating fibres in the outer region. The silicon pixels provide the necessary granularity and radiation tolerance to handle the high track density expected in the central region, while the scintillating fibres are well suited for the peripheral acceptance region. To address the needs of LHCb, a new monolithic High Voltage CMOS sensor called MightyPix is currently being developed for the silicon region. The MightyPix sensor, which is based on the High Voltage CMOS series MuPix and ATLASPix for the Mu3e and ATLAS ITk experiments, is specifically designed to meet the anticipated requirements in terms of pixel size, timing resolution, radiation tolerance, power consumption and data transmission among other parametres, while being compatible with the LHCb 40 MHz readout system. This presentation will cover recent progress towards MightyPix, including evaluation of fabricated prototypes and design towards the next chip iteration MightyPix2. The evaluation results will focus on lab and test beam measurements, obtained with the first fabricated MightyPix1 prototypes and precursor High Voltage CMOS chips before and after irradiation. The design efforts will also include emulating MightyPix on an FPGA to test and verify its digital readout. Additionally, remarkable recent advancements in the mechanical and electronic design of the silicon modules, which envision the use of serial powering, will be showcased. An overview of the current status of the whole Mighty Tracker project will be provided.

Speaker: Dr Tianqi Gao (University of Cambridge)

picture_tianqi.JPG

poster_PISA2024.pptx

poster_PISA2024_v3.pdf

61 Evolution of Flexible PCBs in Particle Detection: From ALICE ITS1 to Future Frontiers in Microfabrication for ALPIDE Chip Integration

The use of ultra-lightweight flexible Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) in silicon-based particle detectors was initially pioneered for the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS1) and the STAR tracker in the early 2000s. In this context, thin and flexible interconnections made of µm-scale polyimide (e.g. kapton) and metal (e.g. aluminum or copper) were specifically designed, offering a low-mass budget material while exhibiting outstanding mechanical stability and electrical properties. Over two decades of continuous progress in the field of Printed Circuit Boards have brought forth contemporary machinery that provides numerous advantages and possibilities for further integrating this technology into upcoming experiments. The pursuit of these endeavors necessitates a sustained and substantial effort to meet the high standards required for experimental precision. This study marks the initial phase of an ongoing process, rooted in the concepts developed for the ALICE experiment. It introduces innovative approaches to microfabricate the PCBs and systematically characterizes them both mechanically and electrically. The preliminary results of integrating this technology with ALPIDE chips are presented, along with potential applications for forthcoming experiments.

Speaker: Alessandro Lega (INFN - LNF)

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Poster_ALega_1-10.pdf

62 High Voltage Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors for the MOLLER Experiment

The MOLLER experiment aims to measure the parity-violating asymmetry (APV) in electron-electron scattering at 11 GeV, and thus determine the weak charge of the electron to a high precision (2.4%). Two of the key sub-systems in the experimental apparatus are the main detector array, consisting of 224 fused silica detector modules and electron beam Compton polarimeter. The main detector array can be operated in either pulse mode for particle tracking, or integration mode for high rate detection. A sub-section of these detector modules will be equipped with an array of High Voltage Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (HVMAPS), to be used in particle tracking and allowing for real-time monitoring of the event profile in the main Moller region. HVMAPS chips are also used for the Compton polarimeter, consisting of four-plane planes of HVMAPS chips, housed in a vacuum chamber upstream of the interaction point. I will provide an overview of the main detector and Compton polarimeter, with a focus on the implementation of the HVMAP sensors, the integrated electronics cooling design, and the engineering, manufacturing and assembly of the detector modules.

Speaker: Nafis Niloy (University of Manitoba)

PISA 2024 Poster.pdf

63 Detector development for the PIONEER experiment

PIONEER is a next-generation precision experiment proposed at the Paul Scherrer Institute to perform high precision measurements of rare pion decays. By improving the precision on the experimental result on the charged pion branching ratio to electrons vs. muons and the pion beta decay by an order of magnitude, PIONEER will provide a pristine test of Lepton Flavour Universality and the Cabibbo angle anomaly. In addition, various exotic rare decays involving sterile neutrinos and axions will be searched for with unprecedented sensitivity.

In the PIONEER experiment design, an intense pion beam is stopped in a segmented, instrumented (active) target (ATAR). The proposed technology for the ATAR is based on low-gain avalanche detectors (LGADs), which can provide precise spatial and temporal resolution for particle tracks and thus separate even very closely spaced decays and decay products. More specifically, trench-insulated and AC-coupled LGADs are being investigated as sensors for this detector. The proposed experiment desing will also include a ~2π sr, 25 radiation length (X0) electromagnetic calorimeter, for which two alternative designs - liquid Xe or LYSO:Ce crystal scintillators - are actively explored. An additional cylindrical tracker surrounding the ATAR, based on micro-patterned gas detector technology (µ-RWELL), will be used to link the locations of pions stopping in the target to showers in the calorimeter.
This presentation will briefly introduce the theoretical motivations for PIONEER, as well as the ongoing simulations efforts to precisely determine the detector performance, informing decisions on the experiment design. It will focus on results from beam test campaigns aimed at the investigation of different aspects of the experiment setup: the beamline itself, sensors for the ATAR, and calibration measurements of the LYSO calorimeter crystal prototypes. In addition, new developments on the path to a multi-layer prototype ATAR system with sensor and readout electronics will be presented.

Speaker: Kolja Frahm (ETH Zurich)

picture-Kolja-Frahm.jpg

poster-PISA Meeting Poster.pdf

64 LUCID-3: the upgrade of the ATLAS Luminosity detector for High Luminosity LHC

The ATLAS physics program at High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) calls for a precision in the luminosity measurement of 1%. A larger uncertainty would represent the dominant systematic error in precision measurements, including the Higgs sector. To fulfill such requirement in an environment characterized by up to 140 simultaneous interactions per crossing (200 in the ultimate scenario), ATLAS will feature several luminosity detectors. At least some of them must be both calibratable in the van der Meer scans at low luminosity and able to measure up to its highest values. LUCID-3, the upgrade of the present ATLAS luminometer (LUCID-2), will fulfill such a condition.

In this presentation, two options for LUCID-3 under study are presented: the first is based on photomultipliers (PMT) as for LUCID-2, while the second is based on optical fibers. In the first case, PMTs with a reduced active area are foreseen, placed at a larger distance from the beam-pipe with respect to LUCID-2 or in a region with low particle flux, behind the forward ATLAS absorber. Both solutions aim at reducing the acceptance of the detector to avoid the saturation of the luminosity algorithms. In the second option, optical fibers act as both Cherenkov radiators and light-guides to route the produced light to the readout PMTs. Both detectors will be monitored continuously with a 207Bi radioactive source deposited on the PMT window and, in the case of the fibers, by additional LED light injected simultaneously on the PMT and at the end of the fiber, to monitor possible ageing of the fiber due to radiation. The prototypes installed in ATLAS in Run-3 are discussed together with the first results obtained.

Speaker: Davide Cremonini (INFN - Bologna)

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poster-cremonini.pdf

65 A new detection set-up for searching the X17 boson

Recently, a nuclear physicists team from ATOMKI (Debrecen, Hungary) observed three significant anomalies in the emission of electron-positron pairs in the $^7$Li(p,e$^+$e$^−$)$^8$Be, $^3$H(p,e$^+$e$^−$)$^4$He and $^{11}$B(p,e$^+$e$^−$)$^{12}$C nuclear reactions [1-3]. These anomalies have been interpreted as the signature of the existence of a boson (referred as X17) of mass M$_{X17}$ = 16.8 MeV/c$^2$, that could be a mediator of a fifth force characterised by a strong coupling suppression of protons compared to neutrons (protophobic force). To clarify the present scenario the n_TOF Collaboration at CERN is engaged to realise an experimental program to probe the X17 existence and to study its properties through the first study of the $^3$He(n,e$^+$e$^−$)$^4$He reaction and performing a renewed measurement of the $^7$Li(p,e$^+$e$^−$)$^8$Be process. In case of a positive result, the n_TOF program also foresees the study of the conjugate $^2$H(n,e$^+$e$^−$)$^3$He and $^2$H(p,e$^+$e$^−$)$^3$H reactions, that offers a unique opportunity to study the supposed protophobic nature of the fifth force.
The experimental set-up described here is based on the use of four large $\mu$Rwell chambers properly arranged to surround the target, providing the 3D reconstruction of electron and positron tracks. The $\mu$Rwell chambers are inside to an array of scintillating bar, which provides the trigger. Finally, all the detectors are immersed in a magnetic field of 500 Gauss, to measure charge and momentum of e$^+$e$^−$ ejectiles through their curvature. In this talk is described the experimental setup and the experimental program. The results of tests using proton and neutron beams are also discussed.

[1] A. J. Krasznahorkay et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, (2016) 042501.
[2] A. J. Krasznahorkay et al., Phys. Rev. C 104, (2021) 044003.
[3] A. J. Krasznahorkay et al., Phys. Rev. C 106, (2022) 061601.

Speaker: Carlo Gustavino (INFN - Roma 1)

poster.GGustavino.pdf

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66 Bayesian tuning of the Compact Muon Beam Line for the Mu3e experiment

Currently PSI delivers the most intense continuous muon beam in the world with up to few 10^8 μ+/s and aims at keeping its leadership upgrading its beamlines within the HIMB project to reach intensities up to 10^10 μ+/s, with a huge impact for low-energy, high-precision muon based searches.

The use of hyper parameter search algorithms has shown that not only the stringent rate requirements can be met, but that higher phase space quality can be achieved. To reach such high quality tunes during commissioning, a novel tuning strategy is required, due to the large aberrations introduced by the employment of solenoidal elements along the HIMB beamlines. We present here the preliminary tests carried out in December 2023 at the Compact Muon Beam Line (CMBL) at PSI, serving the Mu3e experiment, where for the first time a tuning of low energy muon transfer lines with Bayesian algorithms was performed. The method was explored both point-like detectors to maximize rate on axis and arrays of plastic scintillators to tune at once the delivered rate and the beam spot size.

Speaker: Giovanni Dal Maso (Paul Scherrer Institut - ETH Zürich)

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PISA2024_DalMaso.pdf

67 Commissioning of the Upstream Tracker for the LHCb Upgrade

The LHCb detector has undergone a major upgrade that will enable the experiment to acquire data with an all-software trigger, made possible by front-end readout in real-time and the capabilities of performing the data selection algorithm while the data are acquired. Almost all the detector subsystems have been replaced by new designs mandated by the processing speed requirements to achieve this goal. At the heart of the real-time analysis is a fast and efficient track reconstruction, without spurious tracks composed of segments associated with hits from different charged particles. The Upstream Tracker (UT), a 4-plane silicon microstrip detector in front of the dipole magnet, is crucial to the charged particle trajectory reconstruction. The UT also provides a momentum measurement, as it is located in a magnet fringe field and aids the reconstruction of long-lived particles.

The UT comprises about 1000 sensors of four different designs and about 4000 dedicated front-end ASICs (SALT chips), performing analog processing, digitization, common-mode subtraction, and zero-suppression. Communications with the DAQ system are coordinated by a set of data control boards that also provide the optical interface between front-end ASICs and data acquisition boards. Four firmware algorithms are needed to process the UT data in the TELL40 readout boards because of the different data rates to be dealt with.

The UT was installed in LHCb in early 2023. The first year of commissioning was challenging for data synchronization issues related to specific properties of the GBTx chip. We report the lessons learned during the early commissioning phase and the upcoming run when the UT performance with beams will be studied. In particular, we focus our report on the steps taken to ensure that the excellent performance of the various detector components is maintained in the experiment environment and at the high rates expected.

Speaker: Carlos Abellan Beteta (University of Zurich)

PosterPisa2024.pdf

68 Preparation for mass production and quality assurance of the mPMT module for Hyper-Kamiokande

Hyper-Kamiokande (Hyper-K) is to be the next generation of large-scale water Cherenkov detectors and aims to obtain exciting results in many fields such as the study of CP violation in the leptonic sector, the search for proton decay and the study of accelerator, atmospheric, solar neutrinos and neutrinos from astronomical origin.
The Hyper-K Far Detector will be characterized by a hybrid configuration that combines the 20" PMTs, already adopted in Super-K, with the multi-PMT (mPMT) modules, a novel technology first designed for the KM3NeT experiment.
The mPMT module, based on a pressure vessel instrumented with 19 multiple small diameter (7.7 cm) photosensors, each one with a different orientation, readout electronics and power, offers several advantages as increased granularity, reduced dark rate, weaker sensitivity to Earth’s magnetic field, improved timing resolution and directional information with an almost isotropic field of view.
We are completing the R&D of the mPMT prototype and are now starting the preparation for mass production.
In this contribution the results of the tests performed on the first protoypes as well as the procedures for quality assurance and Hyper-K’s mPMT program will be discussed.

Speaker: Alessandro Di Nola (INFN - Napoli)

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Poster_DiNola.pdf

69 Developing multi-track event reconstruction to constrain the antiproton background in Mu2e

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for the CLFV neutrinoless coherent muon to electron conversion in the field of an Al nucleus. The experimental signature of the process is a monochromatic electron (CE) with $E_{CE}$ =104.97 MeV/c. CE-like electrons could also come from background processes like the cosmic muons, Decays in Orbit of muons stopped in the Stopping Target (ST), Radiative Pion Capture at the ST followed by $\gamma \rightarrow e^+e^-$ conversion or antiprotons produced by the proton beam at the Production Target and annihilating in the ST. The background induced by $\overline{p}$s is expected to be very low but has a large systematic uncertainty. This background cannot be suppressed by the time window cut used to reduce the prompt background because $\overline{p}$s are significantly slower than the other beam particles. However, $p\overline{p}$ annihilation in the ST is the only source of events with multiple tracks coming from the ST, simultaneous in time, each with a momentum in the signal window region. We plan to exploit this unique feature. The idea is to identify and reconstruct events with multiple tracks and use them to estimate the $\bar{p}$ background. The Mu2e detectors: the Tracker and the Calorimeter along with the default event reconstruction are optimised for efficient single $e^-$ track reconstruction. The topology of a multi-track $p\bar{p}$ annihilation event is very different from a CE event. We have developed new physics-neutral algorithms to reconstruct multi-track final state events. These new algorithms not only significantly improve the efficiency of reconstructing $p\bar{p}$ annihilation events, but they also improve the efficiency of single $e^-$ track reconstruction.

Speaker: Namitha Chithirasreemadam (Università di Pisa / INFN)

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poster-Namitha.pdf

70 Cooled SIPM for next generation of Ring Imaging Cherenkov detectors

The housing of the sensors for future Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detectors, regardless of the sensor choice, is a complex task, with many complex requirements. To optimize the required resources and simplify the design, different functions should be integrated in modular and self-contained functional units.

Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are among the potential photo-sensor candidates to be used in the future upgrades of the RICH detectors. The primary limitation lies in their high intrinsic dark-count noise after irradiation which could prevent to use them in single-photon mode unless operated at sufficiently low temperatures.

A module housing the SiPM sensors, the readout front-end electronics and all the ancillary services is under development. The starting point is the Elementary Cell (EC), the housing module presently used in the upgraded LHCb RICH detector.

The main challenge for the new EC will be the implementation of active cooling for the photo-sensors while also maximizing geometrical acceptance and managing the higher channel density due to the smaller pixel size than the current implementation, for all the front-end/back-end readout electronics.

Two independent cooling strategies are under consideration: a local cooling strategy, to
cool down a region around the sensor as small as possible, providing thermal insulation as close as possible to the sensor, thus minimizing the mass to cool and avoid problems with low
temperatures of surrounding objects, such as radiator gases, which may liquefy
if not insulated, or readout electronics; a global cooling
strategy, enclosing the photodetector assembly inside a cryostat. For local cooling, current industrial technologies for cooling solid-state devices, such as fluid micro-channel cooling, Peltier coolers, miniature cryo-coolers, and ceramics cooling plates, are under investigation. The requirements, the current design status, and the developed prototypes along with their characterization will be presented.

Speaker: Roberta Cardinale (INFN - Genova)

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Poster_RobertaCardinale.pdf

71 Characterisation of Cherenkov detectors for the MOLLER experiment

The MOLLER (Measurement Of Lepton Lepton Electroweak Reaction) experiment at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab), Newport News, Virginia, USA is aiming to measure the parity-violating asymmetry (A$_{pv}$) in the electron-electron (Møller) scattering with unprecedented precision. The flux of Møller scattered electrons from the liquid hydrogen target is measured by Cherenkov detectors and the longitudinal polarisation of the incoming electron beam is rapidly flipped to extract the right-left fractional flux difference and thence A$_{pv}$. The discovery reach of MOLLER is unmatched by any proposed experiment measuring a flavor and CP-conserving process over the next decade.

A state of the art detector sub-system is designed to precisely measure the Møller scattered electrons with Cherenkov detectors. The foreseen highest particle rates over the entire detector region are $\sim$ 150 GHz. The radial and azimuthal segmentation of the Cherenkov detectors are chosen such that the highest rates on the individual detector are $\sim$ 5-6 GHz. Fused silica (quartz) tiles are chosen as the Cherenkov radiator in the main integrating detectors because of their radiation hardness and negligible scintillation. A collaborative R&D effort has been carried out to investigate the performance of the prototype detectors with mono-energetic particle beam and also with cosmic muons. The Cherenkov detectors are tested at the MAMI accelerator facility in Mainz, Germany with the electron beam of energy $\sim$ 855 MeV. Other detectors such as Gas Electron Multipliers (GEM) and scintillators are being used as tracking detectors to calibrate the primary Cherenkov detectors. All the crucial detector components (e.g. electronics, 3D printed detector parts, quartz tiles etc) are tested for the radiation hardness at the Idaho Accelerator Center, Idaho, USA.

A detailed overview of the experimental goals, design, radiation hardness studies and performance of the prototype detectors in electron beam and also with cosmic muons will be presented.

Speaker: Sayak Chatterjee (University of Massachusetts)

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Poster_PISA_May_June_2024_Sayak_Chatterjee.pdf

Poster_Sayak_Short_description.mp4

72 Simulation and R&D studies for the muon spectrometer at a 10 TeV Muon Collider

The International Muon Collider Collaboration is making great efforts to design a new collider with muon beams operating at 10 TeV centre-of-mass energy. Such an apparatus will offer enormous potential for the exploration of the particle physics frontier, combining the precision of electron-positron machines with the low level of beamstrahlung and synchrotron radiation, and the high centre-of-mass energy and luminosity of hadron colliders. One of the main challenges arises from the beam-induced background (BIB) originated by the interaction of electrons and positrons from muon decay with the machine. The BIB occupancy drives the development of ad-hoc reconstruction algorithms and high-performance detectors.
Therefore, on the one hand, a full simulation is crucial to understand the feasibility of the experiment implementation and on the other, an extensive R&D program is required to find suitable technologies. In this context, the studies concerning the muon spectrometer are here presented. A new geometry is simulated with seven (five) layers of Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs) in the barrel (endcap) as track-sensitive chambers. Moreover, both the endcaps are equipped with a layer of Picosec to provide time information to reject BIB hits. Picosec achieves resolutions of the order of tens of picoseconds by amplifying, via a Micromegas, electrons generated by the conversion of Cherenkov light produced from an incident particle on a radiator crystal. A new algorithm to seed global muon track reconstruction with standalone muon objects has been developed. The achievements in the muon reconstruction efficiency, BIB sensitivity and background mitigation, as well as the test beam results with different radiators, various photocathodes, and new-generation gas mixtures for Picosec are presented.

Speaker: Matteo Brunoldi (INFN - Pavia)

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poster-Simulation_and_R&D_ studies_for_the_muon_spectrometer.pdf

73 Quality Control of LYSO:Ce crystals for the CMS barrel MIP Timing Detector

In the next years the Large Hadron Collider will enter its High-Luminosity (HL-LHC) phase. The instantaneous luminosity will increase from about $2 \times 10^{34}cm^{-2}s^{-1}$ to $5-7 \times 10^{34}cm^{-2}s^{-1}$ and, accordingly, the number of pileup interactions will increase from about 60 to 140-200.
All CMS subsystems will be upgraded in order to maintain the current physics performance. In addition, a MIP Timing Detector (MTD) for charged particles will be constructed. MTD has a target time resolution of 30 − 60 ps, allowing to distinguish the primary vertices of tracks using timing information, therefore mitigating the pileup. The detector will be positioned between the tracker and the electromagnetic calorimeter. MTD is divided into two regions, the Barrel/Endcap Timing Layers (BTL/ETL).
The active elements of BTL are arrays of Lutetium-yttrium-orthosilicate (LYSO) scintillating bars doped with cerium (LYSO:Ce), each readout by two silicon photo-multipliers (SiPM) arrays. For precision timing purpose at HL-LHC, LYSO is an optimal candidate, because of its radiation hardness, high light yield (40k photons/MeV), high density, fast rise time (<100 ps) and decay time around 40ns.
The quality of BTL LYSO crystals in the production phase will be monitored in a dedicated laboratory in INFN-Rome1, for a sample of arrays and single crystals. With the same system the crystals were tested in the market-survey phase. In order to ensure mechanical compatibility in the detector assembly, arrays will undergo dimensional measurements via a Coordinate Measuring Machine. LYSO arrays performances will be instead checked using 511 keV annihilation photons, to measure relative light output, optical cross-talk, and time resolution. The crystals production process quality will be monitored through measurements of absolute light yield and decay time, involving a multi-anode photo-multiplier tube and a waveform digitizer, performed on different bars for each crystal ingot.

Speaker: Ruben Gargiulo (INFN - Roma 1)

Poster

74 The Run 3 timing detector of the CMS Precision Proton Spectrometer: status and performance

The CMS Precision Proton Spectrometer (PPS) detector system measures the positions and time-of-flights (ToF) of protons that remain intact in the collision in the very forward region at the LHC. The detector system consists of movable tracking and timing stations around 200 m on both sides of the interaction point of the CMS. The detectors can be moved to a few millimetres from the circulating beam and the detectors will be exposed to highly non-uniform irradiation. For Run3 the ToF measurement system was upgraded with the aim of improving the radiation tolerance and obtaining a time resolution of less than 30 ps. It uses 500 µm thick single crystal CVD diamond sensors in double-diamond configuration. The detectors have been operated in high luminosity conditions during Run3. The PPS timing detector and its performance in Run3 will be presented, with focus on the testing of the diamond sensors.

Speaker: Milla-Maarit Rantanen (University of Helsinki)

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poster-PPS_detector_performance_v2.pdf

75 Development of the electron detectors and readout electronics for BRAND experiment

The correlation coefficients of neutron and nuclear beta decays are a distinctive tool to probe physics beyond the standard model (BSM) in a low-energy regime. The BRAND is a unique experimental initiative aiming at the simultaneous measurement of 11 correlation coefficients (a, A, B, D, H, L, N, R, S, U, and V) of neutron decay, with an emphasis on H, L, S, U, and V, which have not been attempted so far. These correlation coefficients necessitate a measurement of four vectors: the momentum and spin of the electron, as well as the momentum of the proton and the spin of the neutron~\cite{brand}. The BRAND setup involves electron and proton detection systems. The electron detection system consists of a MultiWire Drift Chamber (MWDC)~\cite{det2,det3}, scintillator detectors for energy measurement and triggering purposes, and a Mott scattering target for electron spin analysis. The proton detection system composes an accelerating electric field, an electron-to-proton converter foil, and a thin scintillator with a SiPM readout. The decay vertex will be reconstructed using the tracker information and proton hit position, as well as the time-off-flight determined in the proton detector.

The BRAND employs gas and plastic scintillator-based detectors, incorporating specially designed front-end electronics allowing for the digitization of signals from the wires, photomultiplier tubes, and silicon photomultipliers, exclusively by multi-hit TDC (CAEN V1190). Such a solution significantly reduces the cost of the electronics and greatly simplifies the triggering logic. The characterization of recently developed prototypes, including the achieved performance, will be presented.

Speaker: Ghnashyam Gupta (Jagiellonian University)

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Poster-GGupta_PisaDet2024_V3.pdf

76 ATLAS ITk Pixel Outer Endcap CO2 cooling system prototype

In preparation for the high-luminosity LHC phase, the ATLAS detector will be upgraded with a new silicon inner tracker, the ITk, relying on a cooling system based on carbon dioxide (CO2) evaporative properties.
In order to test the key aspect of the cooling, prototypes of the cooling system for the different ITk Outer Endcap layers were built in Milan and tested at the CERN CO2 BabyDEMO cooling plant. The facility is able to provide a CO2 flow of 150 g/s with a temperature as low as -45 C.
The presentation will illustrate the mechanical construction of the prototype and the use of 3D-printed titanium parts. The thermal load of the detector (up to 1kW on the Layer 4 Half-Shell during normal operation) was also simulated. The sizing of the capillary present in the system, required to reach the design pressure drop 8 bar and to trigger the CO2 evaporation, will also be discussed. The pressure and temperature sensors installed in the prototype and the data acquisition will be described.
The measurement performed at the BabyDEMO cooling plant, both at the nominal ATLAS operating condition and in more extreme scenarios, will be described. The systems were proved to be stable under all the conditions tested, and the total pressure drops were consistent with the requirements of the system specification.

Speaker: Sonia Carrà (INFN - Milano)

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Poster-SCarra-PisaMeeting26052024.pdf

77 Operational Experience and Performance with the ATLAS Pixel detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN

The tracking performance of the ATLAS detector relies critically on its 4-layer Pixel Detector. As the closest detector component to the interaction point, this detector is subjected to a significant amount of radiation over its lifetime. At present, at the start of 2024-Run3 LHC collision ATLAS Pixel Detector on innermost layers, consisting of planar and 3D pixel sensors, will operate after integrating fluence of O(1015) 1 MeV n-eq cm-2.
The ATLAS collaboration is continually evaluating the impact of radiation on the Pixel Detector.
In this talk the key status and performance metrics of the ATLAS Pixel Detector are summarised, putting focus on performance and operating conditions with special emphasis to radiation damage and mitigation techniques adopted for LHC Run3. These results provide useful indications for the optimisation of the operating conditions for the new generation of pixel trackers under construction for HL-LHC upgrades.

Speaker: Kerstin Lantzsch (CERN)

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poster-Lantzsch_PM2024.pdf

78 The muon entrance trigger and TOF detector prototypes for the muEDM experiment

The Time-Of-Flight TOF detectors of the muEDM experiment at PSI will be presented here.
The muEDM experiment aims at setting the ground for a new direct electric dipole moment (EDM)
search using muons. The experiment will perform this dedicated search using for the first time worldwide
the frozen-spin technique, aiming at improving the current sensitivity by more than three orders
of magnitude to better than 6×10−23 e cm, an astonishing jump. This search is a unique opportunity
to probe previously uncharted territory and to test theories Behind Standard Model physics.

One key point of the experiment is to store muons in the proper orbit and then to measure the
asymmetry of the positrons from the muon decays as a signature of a non-zero muon EDM.
Successful measurement of the muon EDM is crucially dependent on the control of systematic
effects. The dominant effect will be the alignment of the electric field required for the frozen-spin
technique, concerning the magnetic field defining the storage orbit.

To face with this challenge a clockwise (CW) and counter clockwise (CCW) muon injection is considered with a time-of-flight TOF detector.

The characteristics of the TOF detectors are high detection efficiency (above 95%) and high timing
resolution (below 1 ns), to measure impinging minimum ionizing particles. The main challenge is
addressing the above requests with very thin plastic scintillator foils, with a thickness of 100 μ m or
even below, to keep at the minimum the multiple scattering.

We will present the design, construction, and performances of the TOF detectors, where scintillating
foils are coupled to Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs). The obtained results, in conditions very similar
to the final one, showed very promising results: The expected detector performances are addressed
and satisfy the experiment requirements.

Speaker: Angela Papa (Università di Pisa / INFN)

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poster-muEDM_Entrance_TOF_detectors.pdf

79 A cryogenic system for measuring in the VUV range the absolute quantum efficiency of light detectors with large sensitive area.

Most of experiments for neutrino physics and rare event search exploit the scintillation light coming from liquefied noble gases. Light is usually emitted in the VUV range and is detected by large sensitive area detectors, typically photomultiplier tubes (PMT), directly immersed in the liquid and so operating at cryogenic temperature. Considering the great difficulties in producing large window other than glass, the VUV scintillation photons are first shifted to visible light by a wavelength-shifter deposited on the glass windows of the light detectors.

The measurement of the overall quantum efficiency (q.e. - wavelength shifter and photocathode) in VUV range at room temperature has already carried out, but this measurement at liquefied gases temperature is rather difficult and requires dedicated instrumentation and tests.

A system for this kind of measurement has been developed in our laboratory. This is made with a stainless steel vacuum chamber designed to house the PMT under test. The chamber is placed in a dewar filled with liquid nitrogen or liquid argon which brings the PMT to cryogenic temperature from the outside. The device temperature is continuously monitored by means of PT1000 sensors. VUV light from a deuterium lamp, directly connected to the vacuum chamber, is selected by a monochromator or by a narrow VUV filter and is used as a monochromatic light source to illuminate the PMT.
The system allows the measurement of either the variation of the photocathode behavior between room and cryogenic temperatures, as well as the absolute q.e. comparing the photocatode current with a NIST calibrated phododiode placed inside the chamber but kept at room temperature.

In this presentation, the main technical characteristics and performances of the system are shown together with results coming from preliminary tests on the 8" Hamamatsu R5912-MOD PMT.

Speaker: Gian Luca Raselli (INFN - Pavia)

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Poster_Raselli.pdf

80 TetraBall: a single-moderator neutron spectrometers for HL-LHC

This contribution presents a novel single moderator neutron spectrometer, named "TetraBall", developed at INFN and optimized for characterizing the neutron field in the CMS experimental cavern. The Tetraball condenses the functionality of several Bonner Speres (BS) in a single moderator and it is equipped with 42 SiC radhard detectors organized in a tetraedric geometry designed to be insensitive to gamma and to charge hadrons. Thanks to lead inserts it can respond up to GeV energies. It works in single exposure mode to be suitable for "quasi-online" monitoring, overcoming the limitation of BS systems. It is designed to be used as neutron monitor for the HL-LHC data period.

Speaker: Marco Costa (INFN - Torino)

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Photo-Costa Marco.pdf

POSTER-Costa-PM2024.pdf

81 Synthesis of Junction Box Quality Assurance for KM3NeT-ARCA Neutrino Detector

The KM3NeT-ARCA neutrino detector is the largest underwater neutrino telescope operating in the Mediterranean Sea at a depth of 3500m, 100 km from the coast of Portopalo di Capo Passero. It is composed of strings anchored in the deep sea and kept vertical using a buoy.
Each string hosts 18 Digital Optical Modules (DOMs), containing 31 optical sensors. The entire telescope, once completed, will be composed of 230 identical strings that will send data to shore in real time.
A Junction Box (JB) and an electro-optical cable permit the connection to the shore and the powering of the entire system. Each JB connects to the shore, handling 12 strings. Therefore, it turns out to be a crucial element that requires precise Quality Assurance rules.
During the phases of the JB project's lifecycle, such as design, manufacturing, assembly, integration, and operation, a strict Management Procedure has been applied.
This article will focus on the Quality Assurance process that has allowed the JB to be a robust and reliable element of the entire KM3NeT-ARCA background network.

Speaker: Giuseppina Larosa (INFN - LNS)

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Poster_ID-207-PM2024_KM3NeT_Larosa.pdf

Tuesday, 28 May

Solid State Detectors - Oral session

Conveners: Carlos Lacasta (IFIC-Valencia), Valentina Sola (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

82 The LHCb VELO detector: design, operation and first results

During the second long shutdown of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the LHCb experiment has been upgraded and the new detector is currently operating at the LHC. The Vertex Locator (VELO) is the detector surrounding the interaction region of the LHCb experiment, responsible of reconstructing the proton-proton collision (primary vertices) as well as the decay vertices of long-lived particles (secondary vertices). The VELO consists of 52 modules with hybrid pixel detector technology. The upgrade VELO encompass an enhanced track reconstruction speed and precision, even at the expected higher occupancy conditions of the upgrade, due to its pixel geometry as well as a closest distance of approach to the LHC beams, with the first sensitive pixel being at just 5.1 mm from the beam line. Cooling is provided by evaporative CO2 circulating in 500 $\mu$m thick silicon microchannel substrates. The sensors consist of 200 $\mu$m thick n-on-p planar silicon sensors, read out via 3 front-end ASICs. The detector contains 41 million 55$\mu$m x 55$\mu$m pixels, read out by a custom developed front-end ASIC (VeloPix). During the lifetime of the detector, the sensors are foreseen to accumulate an integrated fluence of up to 8x10$^{15}\,$1MeV$\,$n$_{\rm eq}\,$cm$^{-2}$, roughly equivalent to a dose of 400 MRad. Moreover, due to the geometry of the detector, the sensors will face a highly non-uniform irradiation, with fluences in the hottest regions expected to vary by a factor 400 within the same sensor. The detector has started operation in 2022. The new detectors have performed very well throughout the first year of Run 3, but face new operational challenges with increased radiation damage foreseen till the end of this run. The design, operation and early results evaluating the radiation damage and detector performance throughout the first year of operation in LHC run 3 will be presented.

Speaker: David Friday (University of Manchester)

LHCb_VELO_David_Friday.pdf

83 ATLAS ITk Pixel Detector Overview

In the high-luminosity era of the Large Hadron Collider, the instantaneous luminosity is expected to reach unprecedented values, resulting in up to 200 proton-proton interactions in a typical bunch crossing. To cope with the resulting increase in occupancy, bandwidth and radiation damage, the ATLAS Inner Detector will be replaced by an all-silicon system, the Inner Tracker (ITk). The innermost part of the ITk will consist of a pixel detector, with an active area of about 13 m^2. To deal with the changing requirements in terms of radiation hardness, power dissipation and production yield, several silicon sensor technologies equipped with novel ASICs connecting by bump-bonding technique will be employed in the five barrel and endcap layers. As a timeline, it is facing to pre-production of components, sensor, building modules, mechanical structures and services.
This contribution presents the status of the ITk-pixel project focusing on the lessons learned and the biggest challenges towards production, from mechanics structures to sensors, and it will summarize the latest results on closest-to-real demonstrators built using module, electric and cooling services prototypes.

Speaker: Craig Buttar (University of Glasgow)

ATLAS-Pixel-Detector-Pisa24 submitted.pdf

84 The ATLAS ITk Strip Detector System for the Phase-II LHC Upgrade

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. After completion of final design reviews in key areas, such as Sensors, Modules, Front-End electronics and ASICs, a large scale prototyping program has been completed in all areas successfully. We present an overview of the Strip System, and highlight the final design choices of sensors, module designs and ASICs. We will summarize results achieved during prototyping and the current status of production and pre- production on various detector components, with an emphasis on QA and QC procedures.

Speaker: Carles Solaz (IFIC)

Solaz_ITk-strips_PISA2024.pdf

85 Precision Timing with the CMS MIP Timing Detector for High-Luminosity LHC

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is undergoing an extensive Phase 2 upgrade program to prepare for the challenging conditions of the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). A new timing detector for CMS will measure minimum ionizing particles (MIPs) with a time resolution of ~30-40 ps for MIP signals at a rate of 2.5 Mhit/s per channel at the beginning of HL-LHC operation. The precision time information from this MIP timing detector (MTD) will reduce the effects of the high levels of pileup expected at the HL-LHC, bringing new capabilities to the CMS detector. The MTD will be composed of an endcap timing layer (ETL), instrumented with low-gain avalanche diodes and read out with the ETROC chip, and a barrel timing layer (BTL), based on LYSO:Ce crystals coupled to SiPMs and read out with the TOFHIR2 chip. In this talk we present an overview of the MTD design and the expanded physics capabilities introduced by MTD, describe the latest progress towards prototyping and production, and show the latest test beam results demonstrating the achieved target time resolution.

Speaker: Frank Golf (University of Nebraska)

cms-mtd-pisa-meeting.pdf

86 The DMAPS upgrade of the Belle II Vertex Detector

The SuperKEKB collider will undergo a major upgrade at the end of the decade to reach the target luminosity of 6 10^35 cm-2 s-1, offering the opportunity to install a new pixelated vertex detector (VTX) for the Belle II experiment. The VTX will be more robust against the expected higher level of machine background and more performant in terms of standalone track finding efficiency.
The VTX design matches the modified interaction region and includes five layers, spanning radii from 14 mm to 135 mm.
All layers are equipped with the same depleted-MAPS, OBELIX, designed in the Tower 180 nm technology, which pixel matrix is derived from the TJ-Monopix2 sensor originally developed for the ATLAS experiment. Featuring a 33 µm pitch, OBELIX integrates hits over 100 ns while dissipating less than 200 mW/cm2 at an average hit rate of 60 MHz/cm2. The digital trigger logic matches the 30 kHz average Belle II trigger rate with 10 µs trigger delay and a maximum hit rate of 120 MHz/cm2.
The two innermost layers (iVTX) have a sensitive length of about 12 cm and aim for a material budget below 0.2 % X0/layer, benefitting from air cooling. One ladder is made of a 4-sensor wide module cut out from processed wafers and submitted to post-processing operations in order to connect them at one end.
The three outer layers (oVTX) target material budget ranging from 0.3 % X0 for the shortest length up to 0.8 % X0 for the 70 cm-long and outermost layer. The ladder concept uses a light mechanical structure supporting a liquid-cooled plate in contact with the sensors connected to a flex printed cable.
We will review all project aspects: tests of the TJ-Monopix2 sensor, OBELIX-1 design status, prototype fabrication and tests for the iVTX and oVTX concepts, including their cooling.

Speaker: Giuliana Rizzo (Università di Pisa / INFN)

vtx_elba2024_rizzo_v3.pdf

10:10 Coffee break

87 MONOLITH - picosecond capability in a high granularity monolithic silicon pixel detector

The MONOLITH H2020 ERC Advanced project aims at producing a high-granularity monolithic silicon pixel detector with picosecond-level time stamping. Such extreme timing exploits fast and low-noise SiGe BiCMOS electronics, and a novel sensor concept: the Picosecond Avalanche Detector (PicoAD).

A prototype without internal gain layer and 100µm pixel pitch was produced in 2022. Lab measurements with a femtosecond laser provided time resolutions down to 2.5 ps. Testbeam measurements showed full efficiency and 20 ps time resolution at a power consumption of 1 W/cm^2 and a sensor bias voltage HV = 200 V. This prototype after being irradiated up to 1x10^16 neq/cm2, still provides an efficiency of 99.7% and 45 ps at HV = 300 V.

The novel PicoAD sensor uses a patented multi-PN junction to engineer the electric field and produce a continuous gain layer deep in the sensor volume. The result is an ultra-fast current signal with low intrinsic jitter in a full fill factor sensor. A proof-of-concept monolithic PicoAD demonstrator provided full efficiency and 13 ps at the center of the pixel, while the time resolution raised to 25 ps in the inter-pixel region. The first batch of PicoAD prototypes with different geometries and gain-layer implant doses was delivered in January 2024; preliminary results will be shown.

Speaker: Giuseppe Iacobucci (University of Geneva)

240526_Elba_Iacobucci_no_animations.pdf

88 4D-Tracking with Digital SiPM-IC

Silicon Photomultipliers are the state-of-the-art technology in single-photon detection with solid-state detectors. Single Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPADs), the key element of SiPMs, have been introduced by CMOS foundries into process design kits, facilitating the development of monolithic SiPMs with custom ASICs. This allows implementing features such as signal digitization, masking, full-hitmap readout, noise suppression, and photon counting on the same monolithic CMOS chip alongside avalanche diodes. The complexity of the readout chain is then reduced. Cost-effective multi-project wafer iterations and access to large-volume production are also other advantages of commercial CMOS nodes.

These new features allow to think of new applications for digital SiPM, such as 4D-tracking of charged particles, where spatial resolutions of the order of SPAD pitch and timestamping with time resolutions of a few tens of ps are required.

A prototype of a digital SiPM was designed at DESY using LFoundry 150 nm CMOS technology. Various studies were carried out in the laboratory and at the DESY II Test Beam Facility to evaluate the sensor’s spatial and timing performance in MIP detection. The direct detection of charged particles was investigated for bare prototypes and assemblies coupling the dSiPM and a thin LYSO crystal.

In this contribution, the concept of monolithic SiPMs, capable of detecting single photons and MIPs with high spatial and timing performance will be presented. DESY digital SiPM designs and characterizations will be reported as examples to illustrate the R&D potential. Perspectives and possible applications of CMOS SPAD arrays will be discussed.

Speaker: Gianpiero Vignola (DESY)

2024-05-28_Vignola_PISA_Meeting.pdf

89 A position sensitive silicon sensor with sub-micron resolution working on entirely digital operation

We have developed a novel design for a high pixel density position sensitive detector that avoids the use of the analogue circuit for amplification of the signal. The working principle of this novel silicon sensor is based on the change of a binary status when an ionising particle crosses the devices. This mode of operation has multiple advantages, from very high position resolution, low power consumption, simplified readout, portability of the design to different CMOS technologies. This concept can allow designing position sensitive detectors in very deep sub-micron CMOS technologies. The first prototype (PartiCam) of this new concept has been produced in standard 65nm UMC CMOS. The chip has a 1.8x1.8 mm2 footprint with various test arrays for comparing the efficiency of different layouts to sensing ionising radiation . The arrays have different pixel numbers (128x128 or 256x256) with pitches ranging from minimum 2 µm to maximum 6µm. The pixel size shows the ground-breaking position resolution achievable with this concept. We will present characterisation of this chip using test structures with internal charge injection circuits and response to laser and alpha particle illumination.

Speaker: Gianluigi Casse (University of Liverpool / Università di Roma)

Casse Pisa Meeting.pptx

90 Thin silicon sensors for extreme fluences: a doping compensation strategy

Future hadronic colliders, like FCC-hh, demand efficient tracking detectors in environments with expected fluences exceeding 1 $\times$10 $^{17}$ 1MeV n$_{\mathrm{eq}}$cm$^{-2}$.
Thin Low-Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGADs) emerge as promising candidates for 4D tracking in upcoming experiments, exhibiting precision in timing and tracking capabilities. Their internal signal amplification proves effective in mitigating radiation damage effects (e.g., charge collection efficiency loss) up to approximately 3 $\times$10$^{15}$ n$_{\mathrm{eq}}$cm$^{-2}$. A significant performance deterioration has been observed above 5 $\times$10$^{15}$ n$_{\mathrm{eq}}$cm$^{-2}$, when the acceptor removal effect completely neutralizes the charge multiplication mechanism.
Within this framework, the CompleX project aims at extending the operation range of silicon detectors as 4D trackers up to 5 $\times$10$^{17}$ n$_{\mathrm{eq}}$cm$^{-2}$. The project envisions achieving this unprecedented radiation tolerance through a novel comprehension of radiation damage saturation and an innovative design for the LGAD gain layer with compensated implants. In compensated design, the gain layer results from overlapping p+ and n+ implants: the effective doping concentration will be similar to standard LGADs. Both acceptor and donor atoms will undergo removal with irradiation, but if properly engineered, their difference remains constant even with irradiation, ensuring enhanced radiation resilience. Applying these breakthroughs to thin LGAD sensors (20–40 µm) with an internal gain of 10-20, enables the design of innovative silicon sensors operating efficiently up to the target fluence.
Understanding and modeling the radiation damage effects up to 5 $\times$10$^{17}$ n$_{\mathrm{eq}}$cm$^{-2}$ has the utmost importance, and state-of-the-art Technology CAD tools will be used for the purpose at hand. Numerical modeling strategies for extreme fluences will be presented. Measurements and signal analysis of the first production of compensated LGADs (FBK foundry's release in late 2022) before and after neutrons irradiation, will be presented and discussed and future design evolution for compensated LGADs will be envisaged.

Speaker: Arianna Morozzi (INFN - Perugia)

Morozzi_PisaMeeting2024.pdf

91 Silicon carbide devices for radiation detection: a review of the main performances

Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a semiconductor with a wide, indirect bandgap. It is one of the hardest materials present in nature. The strong bonds determine a large bandgap, implying a high refractive index and a broad transparency over the visible spectrum. Other properties, such as ultraviolet (UV) wavelength absorption, radiation hardness, make this material attractive for alternative application fields, such as high-temperature electronics, biomedical sensors, UV photo-sensors, charged particle and X-ray detectors. For these reasons, SiC are indicated as a valid substitute of Si detectors. In this contest, within the SiCILIA project, a collaboration between the INFN and IMM-CNR, aiming at the realization of innovative detection systems based on SiC, new, large area, p-n junction SiC devices were developed. In this work, we will show an overview of different application fields in which the new SiC devices were investigated. These detectors were tested for particles detection and identification showing excellent performances in terms of energy resolution and particles identifications. Moreover, the detectors were irradiated with ions, neutrons and electrons in several facilities; in all cases SiC devices exhibit good resistance to the radiation damages.

Speaker: Salvatore Tudisco (INFN - LNS)

Silicon_Carbide-S.Tudisco.pdf

Applications to Industrial and Societal Challenges - Poster session

This session will be on display on Monday morning and Tuesday morning
Link to the contributions

92 Gamma and fast neutron detection systems based on combined scintillators for nuclear safeguards and security applications

The presented device is a compact gamma and fast neutron data acquisition system (DAQ) for passive and active NDA of SNM (Special Nuclear Materials). The DAQ weights just 8 kg, including batteries for more than 8 hours of continuous operation. It connects up to 4 organic detectors with Pulse Shape Discrimination (PSD) capabilities and runs PSD in real time on the radiation signals. It measures the energy of the interaction of gamma and neutron radiation separately and combines these values with an accurate determination of the Time-of-Flight at level of 1 nanosecond, to uniquely characterize the material under essay. It provides identification of neutron sources such as Cf-252, Am-Be, Pu, U, Am-Li, Pu-Be, also in presence of high gamma field, and covers scenarios where is present heavy shielding, moderating material, and masking sources.
The paper reports laboratory measurements performed with the use of samples of weapon, fuel, and reactor grade Pu. The laboratory measurement demonstrate the capability of easily determinate spontaneous fission and (,n) reactions.
The device is already in use by the IAEA Safeguards for the assay of critical assemblies and its technology is already implemented in the fast neutron collar (FNCL) deployed by the IAEA Safeguards for fresh fuel verification. Moreover, it has been demonstrated the capability of the system to identify SNM isotopic composition using the spectrum of the energy deposited by gamma and neutron radiation in the organic scintillator.
Starting from these results, we extrapolated and described the potential use in major identified unattended scenarios. The system could be deployed for attended inspection and is already designed for scalability to variate detection efficiency as well as different level of gamma resolution.

Speaker: Massimo Morichi (CAEN SpA)

Picture Morichi Massimo.jpg

Poster MMorichi.pdf

Video MMorichi.mp4

93 Negative Capacitance Ferroelectric Devices for Radiation Detection Applications

The negative capacitance (NC) feature exhibited by doped high-k dielectric HfO2 has emerged as a crucial technological advancement in CMOS nanoscale electronic devices. The revelation of ferroelectricity in HfO2 opens up new possibilities for manufacturability and scalability across various domains, and the design of low-power, sharply switching transistors. The resilience of ferroelectricity in thin HfO2 films to thickness scaling underscores its exceptional miniaturization capabilities.
The voltage amplification induced by the unique properties of ferroelectric materials further pushes their use in almost every low-power application. The NC concept holds the promise of achieving sub-60 mV/decade subthreshold swing in FET devices at room temperature. The integration of a negative capacitor in the gate stack of a transistor introduces an amplified internal potential (step-up voltage), potentially overcoming the fundamental limit of 60 mV/decade subthreshold swing in FET devices at room temperature of conventional transistors. The theory of "capacitance matching" ensures hysteresis-free operation while maximizing the amplification of the internal potential. This breakthrough could have profound implications for advancing the landscape of electronic device design and performance.
This work introduces the HiEnd (Development of High Energy Efficient Electronic Devices Based on Innovative Ferroelectric Materials) projects, focusing on applying the NC working principle in High Energy Physics experiments detection systems for future colliders. The overarching goal is to advance the fabrication of tracking devices characterized by high spatial resolution, extremely thin layers, and the capability to discern signals from noise in challenging radiation environments. A pioneering aspect of the project involves a preliminary study of the radiation hardness of this innovative technology under irradiation conditions.
Advanced Technology CAD (Computer Aided Design) modeling will be used to investigate the potentiality of NC devices in unconventional application domains. Numerical simulations, capable of verifying experimental results, enhance predictive power, reducing time and cost in detector design and testing.

Speaker: Arianna Morozzi (INFN - Perugia)

photo_AMorozzi.jpeg

poster_MOROZZI_PisaMeeting2024.pdf

94 FLASH Range QA Measurements with the Quality Assurance Range Calorimeter (QuARC)

To ensure optimal patient safety with Proton Beam Therapy (PBT), several beam properties are measured as part of Quality Assurance (QA), with the proton range in water being a key parameter. Due to time restrictions in daily QA, comprehensive measurements are not made. Among many other technical challenges in realising FLASH PBT, current methods for range QA become unusable at the required high dose rates.

The QuARC is a compact detector for proton range measurements under development at UCL. The detector utilises a series of optically isolated scintillator sheets where each is coupled individually to a photodiode in order to sample the proton depth-light distribution. Fitting to an analytical depth-light model, the original depth-dose curve is reconstructed, and the proton range is measured in real-time to sub-mm precision, without any optical artefacts. Due to the nanosecond decay time of the plastic scintillator and the large dynamic range of the detector, range measurements are also possible at FLASH dose rates.

Presented are FLASH range QA measurements made with the QuARC at The Christie in Manchester, UK and UMCG PARTREC in Groningen, Netherlands at beam intensities up to 50 nA. These show excellent agreement with clinical current depth-light measurements made between 1–10 nA, all while providing real-time water-equivalent ranges accurate to 0.5 mm from 70–245 MeV. The results show a promising integrated QA solution for both, clinical and FLASH PBT.

Speaker: Sonia Escribano-Rodriguez (UCL)

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PosterELBA_2024_EscribanoRodriguez.pdf

95 A fluorescence-based beam monitor for ultra-high dose rate therapeutical beams

Recent studies shown and increased effectiveness of radiotherapy (RT) and particle therapy (PT) in treating tumors while minimizing damage to healthy tissue in presence of an ultra-high dose rates (~100 Gy/s). The phenomena, called Flash effect, requires the dose to be delivered concentrated in a short time (<500 ms). However, conventional detectors face challenges in monitoring charged beams in these ranges of dose-rate due to non-linear effects. To address this challenge, a Flash Detector beam Counter - FlashDC - has been developed. This beam monitor exploits air fluorescence to characterize the beam fluence and spatial distribution in real-time with high accuracy and minimal impact on treatment delivery, providing a linear response for various charged beams, dose rates, and energies. Multiple prototypes have been developed and optimized using Monte Carlo simulations. The analysis of data from recent test beam campaigns with electrons delivered at FLASH intensities has demonstrated a linear correlation between the detector signal and the delivered dose-per-pulse, confirming the potential of the technique, and optimization is ongoing to increase the signal-to-noise ratio bringing the project to its next stage of development. This contribution introduces the FlashDC monitor, discusses its expected performance, and presents preliminary test beam results obtained with electron beams in FLASH mode.

Speaker: Giacomo Traini (INFN - Roma 1)

poster_fluo.pdf

96 Development of a High-Resolution, High-Dynamic-Range Charge Detector for Ion Beam Monitoring

This paper introduces a novel concept for a charge detector featuring high resolution and a wide dynamic range. The prototype of this detector was specifically designed and constructed to serve the ion beam monitoring requirements of the High-Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) experiment during beam tests conducted at CERN SPS facilities.

The prototype incorporates a series of silicon pad sensors and utilizes the same readout electronics employed in the HERD Calo photodiode system. Initial testing and experimentation with the prototype have demonstrated exceptional performance, showcasing both high resolution and a dynamic range that enables the measurement of nuclei with atomic numbers ranging from 1 to 80.

An integral aspect of the prototype's success lies in its compatibility with fast and practically real-time data analysis, making it suitable for online applications. In this presentation, we will share the achieved results from the prototype's testing phase, highlighting its capabilities and performance metrics. Furthermore, we will discuss the potential applications of this charge detector in the broader context of the HERD experiment and outline our ideas for future development and refinement.

Speaker: Oleksandr Starodubtsev (INFN - Firenze)

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poster-Starodubtsev.pdf

97 Prototype water Cherenkov detector measurements for muon tomography applications

Muography is an imaging technique based on the detection of muons produced naturally in the atmosphere with applications in Volcanology, Archaeology, Civil Engineering, Homeland Security etc. Various types of background impact absorption tomography measurements at high zenithal detection angles. Trackers combined with Cherenkov detectors have been proposed as means for better background rejection especially for low energy muons and electrons.

Gaseous or water Cherenkov detectors are viable candidates for this. The first provides better energy discrimination while the latter seems more promising for operating outdoors, where most muon absorption tomography experiments take place. Detector stability can become an issue under varying and sometimes extreme weather conditions like the ones encountered around volcanoes for example.

We developed an innovative Cherenkov prototype in the IP2I-Lyon (CNRS-IN2P3, University Lyon-1) within the MEGAMu project funded by the ANR. The original aspects of this detector are two-fold : a fibers-based light collection system and an opto-electronics readout chain identical to the one used for the scintillator trackers. The interesting feature is the uniqueness of the readout chain for tracker and Cherenkov detectors that making it perfectly suited for field experiments with simple trigger and synchronisation schemes.

We present results of the first prototype designed and build in IP2I, installed in-between an hodoscope made out of muon detection matrices. We will describe the DAQ chain and the overall experimental setup. We will present results on the characterisation of the detector’s response to muon tracks and the comparison with a dedicated simulation based on GEANT4 implementing the exact experimental geometry with a primitive simulated version of the Cherenkov detector prototype. Perspectives on the next phase of building a large Cherenkov detector of 1 m3 volume to be coupled with a muon telescope in the field are discussed.

Speaker: Theodore Avgitas (IP2I)

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poster-prototypeWaterCherenkovDetectorMeasurements_avgitas.pdf

98 Detection and Simulation of Bragg Peaks in Proton Therapy Using Plastic Scintillators and Multiple Cameras

Knowledge of the precise location of the Bragg Peak (BP) in proton therapy is crucial for optimizing its therapeutic effects and to minimize the damage to healthy tissues in cancer treatment [1]. In this work, we present test results and simulations of the light emitted by organic scintillators exposed to different proton energies and visualised by multiple cameras to reconstruct the BP. Furthermore, the TOPAS Monte Carlo simulation tool [2], based on Geant4, was used to accurately model the energy deposition of the proton beams and their light generation processes within the scintillators, as seen in Figure 1 (right),. Beam tests were performed at the Christie Proton Therapy Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom using a 70.0 x 3.9 x 9.9 cm3 polystyrene plastic scintillator with beam energies of 80 MeV, 120 MeV, 160 MeV, 200 MeV and 235 MeV. Image data were recorded using 16 MP Raspberry Pi cameras with a Sony IMX519 sensor [3] with 4.656 x 3.496 active pixels, each having 1.22 x1.22 μm2 size (Figure 1 left). The MATLAB machine learning (ML) tools [4] and ImageJ software [5] were used to post-process the data and to facilitate the detection of the BP and the energy deposition path. Further tests at the Christie’s Proton Therapy Centre include the verification of the BP location from prompt-gammas generated during proton interaction in the organic scintillators by using a CAEN system composed of LYSO crystals and Hamamatsu silicon photomultipliers [6].

Speaker: Cinzia Da Via (Manchester)

picture-ID-222-tasnim.jpeg

poster-ID-222-tasnim.pdf

99 Planar silicon sensors for real-time monitoring of electron (and protons) FLASH beams

Background. FLASH Radiotherapy (RT) delivers an average dose-rate > 40 Gy/s in less than 200 ms with extremely high instantaneous dose-rates, and preclinical studies demonstrated a tumoricidal effect comparable to conventional RT with an increased sparing effect on healthy tissues (FLASH effect). Real-time monitoring of FLASH beams is challenging, but crucial for studying the delivery parameters triggering the FLASH effect. Within the INFN-FRIDA project, we are exploring thin silicon sensors as beam monitors for electron and proton FLASH beams.

Materials and methods. Planar silicon sensors of 30/655 and 45/570 $\mu$m active/total thicknesses and 0.25, 1 and 2 mm$^2$ active areas were tested on 9 MeV electron beams from the Pisa CPFR ElectronFlash accelerator (EF, funded by the Pisa Foundation). Measurements were performed with a 5 GS/s oscilloscope and a 64-channel TERA08 chip, a current-pulse-frequency converter with a maximum conversion frequency of 20 MHz and a maximum current of 4 $\mu$A per channel. Silicon sensors were placed at the output of the 30-mm-diameter EF applicator after a solid water slab. Measurements performed with the PTW FlashDiamond were taken as reference. Sentaurus TCAD simulations were also used to study the sensor behaviour under UHDR conditions.

Results. The temporal structure of the beam and the charge collected in each 4 $\mu$s pulse by silicon sensors were measured at the Pisa EF by varying the delivered dose-per-pulse, reaching a response linearity up to the maximum value reached (~10 Gy/pulse).

Conclusions. The preliminary results confirmed that silicon sensors can be employed to measure the fluence and shape of electron FLASH beams. A 3x3 cm$^2$ silicon sensor segmented in strips and an upgraded version of the TERA08 chip are being properly connected to monitor an area of few cm$^2$ on both electron and proton FLASH beams.

Speaker: Elisabetta Medina (Università di Torino / INFN)

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Poster-MEDINA.pdf

100 Enhancing Ring Laser Gyroscope data analysis through Neural Networks for Earthquake detection and Phenomenon identification

This work focuses on creating two neural networks to optimize the analysis of data from ring laser gyroscopes, as in the case of the GINGER experiment at Gran Sasso. The Gingerino prototype provides data for deriving Earth's rotation, polar motion, earthquake detection, and distinguishing rotational components of tides. However, offline analysis using the Hilbert transform takes about 10 minutes. Therefore, our aims are: first, reconstructing the frequency from a sinusoidal signal using only 50 points, corresponding to one hundredth of a second in our case, with a precision of one-thousandth of a Hz, matching the target for seismological studies; and second, identifying the type of data.
The first neural network aims to provide data with minimal delays and sufficient precision to detect earthquakes. It achieves this by simulating sinusoids at different frequencies and adding noise to train the network to recognize different combinations corresponding to the same frequency.
The second network learns to recognize various phenomena in the data, such as earthquakes or transients from laser dynamics like split modes or mode jumps. These capabilities are realized through the automated labeling of data using neural networks and the implementation of a mask that facilitates the selection of high-quality data. The curated dataset can then undergo traditional offline analysis.

Speaker: Giuseppe Di Somma (Università di Pisa / INFN)

picture-DiSomma.jpg

poster-GDiSomma.pdf

101 Charge measurement with nuclear emulsions spectrometers for hadron therapy fragmentation cross section measurements with the FOOT experiment

Particle therapy employs protons and heavy ions for treating deep-seated tumours, yet the biological impact of beam-induced tissue fragmentation remains a crucial concern. Despite the importance of target fragmentation effects, their assessment is challenging, and they are often overlooked in clinical practice. To enhance current clinical treatment plans, precise data on fragmentation cross sections are imperative.

The FOOT (FragmentatiOn Of Target) experiment aims at measuring nuclear fragmentation cross sections in the 50-700 MeV/A beam energy range with about 5% uncertainty. Target nuclei ($^{16}$O,$^{12}$C) fragmentation induced by proton beams is studied via an inverse kinematic approach employing $^{16}$O, $^{12}$C beams impinging on graphite and polyethylene targets. Two complementary setups are used: nuclear emulsion spectrometers measure the production of light charged nuclear fragments (Z≤3), while the magnetic spectrometer focuses on the heavier (Z≥3) fragments.

This presentation will focus on nuclear emulsion spectrometers, specifically highlighting the techniques employed for accurately measuring fragment charges by fully leveraging the correlation between grain density resulting from the energy loss of particles and the particle's specific ionisation. To address this, thermal treatments before film development were applied to induce controlled fading of grains, according to the particle's ionisation. Charge measurement is then performed through two complementary methods: cut based-analysis to distinguish cosmic rays, Z=1 and Z=2 (high energy) fragments and Principal Component Analysis to separate Z=2 (low energy)and Z≥3 fragments.

Results from 200MeV/A and 400MeV/A $^{16}$O beam fragmentation on C and C$_2$H$_4$ targets will be shown. These results will contribute to improve the accuracy of the next generation of biologically oriented Treatment Planning Systems for hadron therapy.

Speaker: Vincenzo Boccia (INFN - Napoli)

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Poster-Boccia_PM24.pdf

102 RIPTIDE: a proton-recoil track imaging detector for fast neutrons

Neutron detectors are crucial for various research fields, including nuclear, particle, and astroparticle physics, as well as hadrontherapy and radiation protection. Not ionizing directly, neutrons are detected via nuclear interactions producing charged particles or electromagnetic radiation. As a result, the detection efficiency depends on the probability of neutron interaction in the detector and on the escape probability of the reaction products.
Nowadays, proton-recoil track imaging remains a challenging task due to the need of a high photon sensitivity, among several reasons.
To overcome these limitations the RIPTIDE (RecoIl Proton Track Imaging DEtector) project was proposed: a monolithic plastic scintillator coupled to an optical system and to CMOS technology imaging devices can act as a recoil-proton track detector, enabling the possibility of a real-time analysis of the energy loss along the charged particle track. The capability of measuring both single and double neutron-proton scattering makes the detector suitable for a wide range of applications.
In this contribution we report on the status of the project, both on a software and hardware standpoint. A GEANT4 optical simulation to explore the possibility of accurately reconstructing the tracks and vertices of neutron interactions within the scintillator volume was developed together with track reconstruction algorithms to provide a reasonable starting setting for the experimental setup. Moreover, the progress on the construction of the first RIPTIDE prototype, from the detector design to ongoing tests of optics system and sensors will be reported.

Speaker: Dr Riccardo Ridolfi (INFN - Bologna)

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poster-ridolfi_riccardo.pdf

103 Deep Learning methods for 3D in-vivo dose reconstruction with EPID detector

In the past few years, Electronic Portal Imaging Device (EPID) have gained prominence for pre-treatment dose verification and real-time monitoring in radiotherapy. These detectors function by recording the X-ray fluence on a pixel-based surface to produce a two-dimensional digital image. Their rapid image capturing ability, high resolution, good linear dose response, and long-term stability make them advantageous. Nevertheless, utilizing EPIDs necessitates the modeling of their response to estimate the two-dimensional dose distribution, known as Portal Dose (PD). This modeling is crucial to compare the predicted and measured PD and to verify whether an error occurred during treatment. Traditional EPID response modeling is based on physical models and Monte Carlo techniques. However, these methods are complex and time-consuming, involving linac geometry, EPID structure details, and several preprocessing steps like sensitivity matrix adjustment, dose response calibration, and EPID scatter correction, making them impractical for widespread clinical use.
Recently, the evolution of hardware has led to significant advancements in Deep Learning (DL), presenting a potentially useful tool for modeling the EPID response. In this research, we are developing a DL-based methodology, employing a trained U-net architecture, to convert the actual EPID responses (captured as greyscale images) into PD images (in dose Gray values). Our current database is composed of several hundred EPID images collected from irradiation of various phantoms, together with a corresponding set of PD images generated by means of the clinic Treatment Plan System. Finally, comparison techniques are being developed to compare the measured and predicted PD, using metrics like the global gamma-index analyses.
In this presentation we present the goals, status, and preliminary results of the DL model, focusing on recent data acquisitions carried out at the Careggi hospital in Florence.

Speaker: Dr Lorenzo Marini (Università di Pisa / INFN)

marini_photo.pdf

poster_pisa_meeting.pdf

104 Medipix for dosimetry and beam characterisation in proton therapy facilities

The Medipix3 is a hybrid pixel detector capable of individually counting protons with millisecond time resolution, even at clinical flux levels. With near-instant readout and count rate linearity, it proves to be suitable for dosimetry and beam characterization in proton therapy facilities. In this study, we present test results conducted at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre (CCC) in the UK, a particle therapy facility specializing in treating ocular cancers using a 60 MeV passively scattered proton therapy beam. This marks the first evaluation of Medipix3 detector performance within a clinical setting with high proton flux. Beam profile measurements were carried out at various positions along the CCC beam line using both EBT3 Gafchromic film and Medipix3. EBT3, the current standard for conventional radiotherapy film dosimetry, served as a benchmark for validating the Medipix3 results. Count rate linearity and doses recorded with Medipix3 were assessed across the full range of available beam intensities. Furthermore, we discuss the potential applicability of Medipix3 for absolute proton therapy dosimetry. This research sheds light on the practical utility of Medipix3 in clinical proton therapy settings, offering insights into its performance and potential as a dosimetry tool.

Speaker: Javier Resta Lopez (University of Valencia)

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poster-Resta-Lopez.pdf

105 Development of a compact neutron spectrometer based on multi-element activation analysis

In recent years, the introduction of accelerator-based BNCT facilities has led to a significant increase in interest from the medical and scientific communities.
Monitoring and characterization of neutron beams and intercomparison of different facilities are becoming mandatory.
This stimulates the development of dedicated dosimetry and spectrometry techniques. This work aims to present a novel compact spectrometer with an isotropic response called Neutron Capture Therapy- Activation Compact Spectrometer (NCT-ACS), funded by INFN, highly sensitive in the energy interval ranging from thermal to 100 keV and suitable for in-phantom irradiation.
The detector geometry is composed of a spherical moderator shell containing different material foils exhibiting neutron radiative capture resonances covering the wide energy domain for BNCT. This contribution will first focus on the extensive simulations work that have been performed to optimize the geometry of the detector, its materials composition, and its response; following by the main experimental results that have been obtained.
Irradiation and activation measurements on a first prototype have been performed at the electron Linac facility installed at the university of Turin, where a well-known epithermal neutron field can be produced. The materials activation was measured using a HPGe and a LaBr(Ce) detectors, opportunely calibrated for the spectrometer geometry. A careful analysis of the activation gamma spectra has been performed to correctly estimate the statistic and systematic uncertainties.
The Turin epithermal neutron spectrum was then obtained using an unfolding code and a comparison with a standard Bonner Sphere Spectrometer (BSS) was performed. The agreement between the two measurement is within the 10%, providing a proof of the NCT-ACS working capability. More details will be provided in the presentation.

A compact multi-material spectrometer for in-phantom measurement will be a novelty for the BNCT applications, with the aim to contribute to the beam quality assurance.

Speaker: Ettore Mafucci (INFN - Torino)

mafucci.JPG

poster_mafucci.pdf

106 Timepix4 assembly characterization using a monochromatic X-rays source at the ELETTRA facility

Timepix4 is the latest generation application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) of the Timepix family, developed by the Medipix4 Collaboration, and mainly targeted for single particle detection in hybrid pixel detectors.
It is built in $65\;nm$ CMOS technology, and it allows to achieve excellent resolutions, thanks to a pixel pitch of $55\;\mu m$, a Time-to-Digital Converter bin size of $195\;ps$, and an energy resolution of $\sim1\;keV$ provided by the Time-over-Threshold (ToT) measurement. With around 230 thousand channels, equipped with both analog and digital front-end electronics, the Timepix4 ASIC stands out for its data-driven architecture, capable of transmitting output data with an high bandwidth, reaching up to $160$ Gb/s. The management of this high-speed data is ensured by FPGA-based external electronics, which also serve as a flexible control board to configure the ASIC.
In order to systematically characterize a Timepix4 assembly bump-bonded to a $300\;\mu m$ silicon pixellated sensor, the tunable monochromatic source of the SYRMEP beamline of the Elettra synchrotron facility has been used.
In particular, a per-pixel calibration of the ToT against the energy released in the Si detector has been performed, to optimize the detector energy resolution. A preliminary analysis aims to study the energy resolution dependence on the X-rays energy, and to estimate the detector efficiency and dead time. Eventually, measurements have been performed in order to assess the spatial resolution in terms of Point Spread Function.

Speaker: Riccardo Bolzonella (INFN - Ferrara)

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poster-Bolzonella.pdf

107 Organic Electronic-based Neutron Detectors

In recent decades organic electronics has entered the mainstream of consumer electronics. Driven by innovations in scalability and low power applications, and low-cost fabrication methods. The potential for using organic semiconductor electronic devices as radiation detectors, and in particular for neutron detection is reported. We report results of laboratory tests using α particles as well as the response to thermal and fast neutrons covering the energy range 0.025 eV to 16.5 MeV. GEANT4 simulations are used to provide a detailed understanding of the performance and potential of this emerging technology for radiation detection.

Speaker: Adrian Bevan (Queen Mary University of London)

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poster-2024_PisaInstrumnetationOrganics.pdf

108 Open-Sky muon tomography on Glacier: first prototype results

We present a design project for a muon tomography detector aiming to the
monitoring of glacier thickness: the glacier melting process is not completely understood and is considered a hot topic in view of the global warming.
Muon Tomography is a widely used technique, employed to perform imaging
of the inner structure of large objects, as volcanoes, container, and pyramids.
This technique takes advantages of the muon flux reaching Earth surface
(∼ 70 m−2s−1sr−1). In case of glaciers, thanks to the different density ofice and rock, a directional flux measurement provides information on the bedrock-ice interface depth.
The goal of our project is the development of a detector able to measure
the glacier thickness with short exposure time, and with a real time data taking and processing, in order to perform studies of the seasonal behavior, and the glacier melting trend through the years. The detector will also be operable in open-sky and be replicable.
We present the first results obtained using a small-scale detector based on scintillation fibers disposed organized in layers, and read by SiPMs driven by FERS boards (A5202), developed by CAEN s.p.a., that both provide a power supply and the read-out system for the detector.
In this contribution we will results of a set of simulations aimed to optimize the detector design, and the foreseen performances of the designed detector and we will also report the result of the tests on the read-out chain, that are performed in collaboration with CAEN s.p.a.. In conclusion we will report the first results obtained with open-sky measurements of test-targets, reporting the prototype resolution and reconstruction capabilities, along with a match with the aforementioned simulations. The results obtained show that the detector can achieve the resolution and angular uniformity in target reconstruction needed for glacier tomography.

Speaker: Alberto Cervelli (INFN - Bologna)

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PosterElbaCervelli.pdf

109 Exploring the Cutting-Edge: The Latest Developments in Space Radiation Detector Technology and Their Non-Space Applications

Space is an environment permeated by different forms of radiation, each with its own characteristics and effects. Studies in this scientific field offer a unique window into the universe, providing important information about the origin, composition, and evolution of the cosmos.
However, space radiation also poses significant challenges for space exploration. Radiation exposure in space has both immediate and long-term effects on astronauts, which can be direct (direct DNA damage) and indirect (changes in the biochemistry of cells and tissues, leading to altered genetic transcription and possibly even causing a DNA mutation).
The measurement of space radiation is therefore of fundamental importance both for space science and for space exploration, but certainly also for the safety of satellites and for remote sensing of the Earth.
That's why space radiation measurement techniques are constantly evolving, and new instruments are being developed to improve their accuracy, sensitivity, and reliability.

This paper presents some of the most recent studies carried out in the framework of cutting-edge research programs in the development and production of radiation detectors to be used in space for the protection and monitoring of human crews, systems in orbit around and for basic studies of the space radiative component, together with their specific and useful applications also on the ground in exposed and difficult to manage environments.

Speaker: Monia Vadrucci (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana)

110 A 3D imaging system for dosimetry in FLASH radiotherapy

In recent years, the advent of Flash radiotherapy has called for a paradigm shift in dosimetry. The Flash effect demands an administration of an average dose rate higher than 40 Gy/s, as opposed to 1 Gy/min in conventional radiotherapy, introducing saturation challenges in standard dosimeters. Moreover, rapid optimization of beam settings and quality assurance protocols require detectors for online, accurate volumetric measurement of delivered dose distributions at high dose rates. Given the limitations of commonly used 3D dosimeters in terms of reusability and signal readout speed, there is a growing interest in plastic scintillators for their real-time capability, tissue equivalence and cost-effectiveness. Although some 3D dosimetric systems based on plastic scintillators have been developed for conventional radiotherapy, there is a lack of validation and optimization of techniques specific for Flash radiotherapy.
In this study, we present the first results of an imaging system made by an EJ200 (Eljen Technology) plastic scintillating block measuring 10x10x10 cm$^3$, irradiated with a high dose rate beam of 9 MeV electrons at the Pisa Center for Flash Radiotherapy (CPFR). Images were captured at various doses per pulse within the flash regime using a scientific CCD camera (Hamamatsu ORCAII-BT-512G) coupled to an objective (Schneider Optics Xenon). During irradiation, the camera and the objective were positioned at a distance of 10 cm orthogonally to the block, which was aligned along the beam axis. This imaging system will enable the validation of a dose delivery reconstruction algorithm based on acquiring multi-projections of 2D light distributions with a single CCD camera and a set of mirrors.

Speaker: Eleonora Ravera (Università di Pisa / INFN)

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poster-Ravera.pdf

111 Development of a SiPM based gamma detector for pet imaging

Time of flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) is a 3D medical imaging technique, used to measure biological activity down to a sensitivity of a picoMol. PET detectors typically consist of a scintillating crystal, photodetector and readout electronics. The time-of-light technique I allows one to inject a lower dose to the patients, to reduce computing time, and for better quality images. In recent years Silicon Photo-Multiplier (SiPM) became the reference photodetector for TOF-PET instrumentation and is widely used in High energy physics, spectroscopy, and LIDAR, due to its excellent time resolution and ease of use.

The ClearMind project develops TOF-PET detectors consisting of PbWO4 crystal with direct deposition of a photocathode and MCP electron multiplication on one side . In this work we develop an additional detection layer using SiPM matrix to use on the other side of the crystal in order to improve gamma depth of interaction estimation and timing resolution.

We present results of the characterization of different SiPM technologies available on the market. The analysis quantifies pulse shapes, noise level (DCR, DiCT, DeCT) , and their dependencies versus overvoltage. We also measured SiPMs time resolution. This analysis allowed us to make informed decisions regarding the choice of SiPM technologies, and optimal operations settings.

High frequency front-end electronics allows to leverage the entire spectral range of SiPMs for best timing resolution. The current trend is the use of high frequency Baluns and amplifiers. HF electronics simulation using ANSYS-HFSS has been conducted to better understand the influence of each component, to choose Baluns and amplifiers, and to design optimized front end electronics in order to push time resolution boundaries. We will present our last results.

Speaker: Rafik Belkacem (CEA / IRFU / DPHP)

Picture-Rafik-BELKACEM.jpg

Poster-Rafik-BELKACEM-SiPMs-Characterization-for-a-SiPM-based-TOF-PET-detector.pdf

112 Development of a Photon-to-Digital converter in 65 nm

Research and development on 3D integrated digital silicon photo-multipliers is motivated by the growing interest in high-energy physics, medical and telecommunication communities. The race in particle accelerators and noble liquid experiments to enable more precise vertex reconstruction implies the need to reduce the timing jitter of the whole electronic chain while increasing the detecting area. The finer timing resolution will also enable great advances in medical imaging from time-of-flight (ToF) positron emission tomography to ToF computed tomography. To achieve the finest spacial resolutions physically possible, the whole detector chain must achieve a timing resolution below 10 ps. This timing precision also enables the adoption of the device in the telecommunication field where quantum key distribution devices benefit by of reducing the physical size of the systems and increasing the data throughput.

In this context, our group is developing a Photon-to-Digital Converter (PDC) aiming at such a timing resolution for the whole detector chain.

To achieve this, a cathode connected quenching circuit (QC) has been designed capable of actively recharging a single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) connected to its input. The prototype, designed in TSMC 65 nm LP technology, includes the full front-end chain required to detect and timestamp photons with an LSB below 10 ps. Furthermore, the prototype includes 2 arrays of 4$\times$4 quenching circuits connected to a 65 nm SPAD array as the input and to time-to-digital converters (TDC) at the output. The QC adopts an inverter chain capable of configuring its switching voltage to optimize the front-end's timing jitter and reduce spurious counts due to the input noise. To improve the production yield, the QC follows all design for manufacturing rules.

The proposed presentation follows the design process and shows updates on PDC fabrication and preliminary results on the newly developed QC prototype.

Speaker: Raffaele Aaron Giampaolo (Université de Sherbrooke)

GIAMPAOLO_PM_Poster_presentation.mp4

PM24 - GIAMPAOLO - Development of a Photon-to-Digital converter in 65 nm.pdf

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113 The reSPECT project: an innovative SPECT detection system based on high-Z organic scintillators

The Global Cancer Observatory reports that in 2020 the European population had a 28.2% risk of developing cancer before the age of 75 years, with a 11.7% mortality risk. Such mortality rate can be reduced through early detection of tumours by means of imaging techniques. Among them, nuclear imaging scans play a pivotal role for noninvasive diagnosis. This contribution is focused on Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), a nuclear imaging technique that allows to inspect physiological processes inside the patient’s body through the detection of the gamma rays emitted by a radiopharmaceutical administered to the patient.

Conventional SPECT detection systems consist of a monolithic inorganic scintillation crystal, typically Thallium-activated sodium iodide, whose scintillation signal is read by an array of photomultiplier tubes. The innovative gamma detector concept investigated in this contribution, instead, relies on a Tungsten metal frame that serves both as a collimator and as a container for the scintillator segments. The reSPECT project involves the development of innovative organic scintillators doped with high-Z impurities, to profit from the extremely fast scintillation process, while maintaining a remarkable photoelectric effect probability (despite the plastic substrate) and a low cost. Moreover, the process of polymerization used to produce such scintillator segments permits to give them any desired size and geometrical shape.

Our project involves a custom readout system tuned for fast scintillation events and high rates, with an independent channel for each scintillator segment to improve the spatial resolution of the detector. A silicon readout system allows for a combination with MRI systems, while the ability to sustain high event rates opens the way to a possible theragnostic use.

In this contribution, the preliminary results obtained with the scintillator prototypes will be presented, in comparison with the solutions currently available on the market.

Speaker: Giacomo Traini (INFN - Roma 1)

poster_respect.pdf

114 A muon beam monitor for the CHNet-MAXI experiment at RIKEN-RAL laboratory

The CHNet-MAXI (Muonic Atom X-ray and prompt gamma spectroscopy for Isotopic analysis for cultural heritage) is an INFN Cultural Heritage program funded by Scientific Commission V, aiming at selecting the best figures of merit in the isotopic analysis of lead by means of muonic atom emission. The experiment will be deployed at RIKEN-RAL facility ISIS-STFC (UK), providing a pulsed muon beams with momenta between 30 and 80 MeV/c. The CHNet-MAXI apparatus will be mainly based on a 9 HPGe detectors array and innovative scintillator detectors read by for the detection of the characteristic X and gamma rays emitted by isotopically enriched targets of Pb 204, 206, 207 and 208, to be exposed to the RIKEN-RAL muon beam. A muon beam hodoscope will be used as a beam x/y profiler and as a beam intensity monitor. This detector has been designed to provide a few mm spacial resolution, and it is based on 3 mm thick scintillating fibers, each read by a single SiPM at one edge. The setup is meant to be portable thanks to desktop HV and innovative open-FPGA DAQ modules. The data acquisition system is based on two 32-channel CAEN DT5560SE desktop digitisers, with a custom-made firmware written on SciCompiler, while the experiment DAQ will eventually be based on a 128-channel digitiser of the same family, CAEN R5560SE. This poster is illustrating all the phases of the design, assembly, and testing of the CHNet-MAXI hodoscope. Finally, first operation tests of this new beam monitor are shown.

Speaker: Riccardo Rossini (INFN - Pavia)

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poster-PM2024_Rossini_HodoMAXI.pdf

Photo Detectors and Particle ID - Poster session

This session will be on display on Monday morning and Tuesday morning
Link to the contributions

12:30 Lunch break

Applications to Industrial and Societal Challenges - Oral session

Conveners: Anna Mazzinghi (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Prof. Peter Dendooven (PARTREC, Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen)

115 Development of a sapphire microstrip detector for gamma beam monitoring

The research and development of a radiation-hard detector for gamma beam monitoring takes place in the scientific context of the LUXE (Laser Und XFEL Experiment) strong-field QED experiment at DESY. At LUXE an intense ($10^9\;\gamma/{\rm BX}$) high-energy ($\sim\;16{\rm GeV}$) inverse Compton beam is produced by the itneraction of an electron beam with an intense laser. Laser absolute intensity probed by the initial electron is an important parameter, whose characterization has a key role in the process reconstruction. Such information is encoded in the Compton's spatial transverse distribution.

There are several requirements that such a device has to cope: an high-resolution ($5\;{\rm \mu m}$) in gamma beam profile reconstruction; a wide dynamic range of beam intensities (from $10^4$ to $10^9$ photons/bunch) and it has to be able to withstand an radiation-hard environment (several MGy/year) with a limited degrading of performance. These conditions are met by a sapphire (${\rm Al_2O_3}$) microstrip (p=100um) detector of 2cmx2cm. This material has high radiation tolerance, very low-leakage current (i.e., making a practically noiseless detector) and can be manufactured in a variety of shapes and large size (e.g., in comparison with diamond detectors).

The talk focuses on the research and development of such sapphire microstrip detector, from its early prototypes to the final stages. Results from a long experimental campaign of test and characterization (CCE, radiation damage, resolution) of sapphire pad and microstrip detectors are presented, by using sources (alfa, x-ray) and an electron beam. The latter both in a low-intensity regime (up to 40ke/bunch) at (INFN LNF) and under high-intensity irradiation (CERN).

Speaker: Pietro Grutta (Università di Padova / INFN)

PM24_Grutta

116 2D and 3D analysis improvements with Machine Learning for Muography Applications

Transmission muography is a non-invasive and non-destructive imaging method which allows to estimate the integrated density of a volume in a given direction (also referred as opacity). It is used in multiple societal applications like archaeology, nuclear safety and geoscience. It relies on the reconstruction of muon tracks that crossed the studied volume compared to the corresponding open sky expectation. The portable experimental setups developed by CEA/Irfu group operates four Micromegas gaseous detectors, HV and DAQ modules, and an embedded computer allowing remote control.
Used Micromegas detectors have a multiplexed readout to optimize the DAQ system, while keeping good spatial resolution (<1mm). However the natural muon flux is relatively low, so muography images can be really noisy and this statistical noise is propagated in the reconstructed 3D images. For this reason, we propose three new methods, using machine learning, which increase significantly the quality of 2D images and 3D reconstructions.
Firstly, we developed a new demultiplexing method for the Micromegas. It showed its efficiency both for 1D (0.11° resolution) and 2D (15° resolution) multiplexed detectors, the former operating in a hodoscopic tracker while the latter integrated in a Time Projection Chamber (TPC). We also showed that this method could differentiate (~99%) muons from electrons in the TPC.
Secondly, we demonstrated how diffusion models could denoise muography images. For this purpose we used data augmentation to model a few hundreds fake nuclear reactors. With such data we simulated muographies from different points of view and trained a neural network to denoise them.
These new methods significantly improved the muography images. Nonetheless, the used 3D reconstruction algorithm (SART) still has some limitations (artifacts, blurring, border effects...). We demonstrated that it was possible to build a 3D post-process neural network following the UNet architecture, which was trained to compensate SART’s limitations.

Speaker: Baptiste Lefevre (CEA Irfu)

muography_analysis_with_ML_PisaMeeting_BLefevre.pdf

Calorimetry - Poster session

This session will be on display on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning
Link to the contributions

Solid State Detectors - Poster session

This session will be on display on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning
Link to the contributions

117 Noise and performance tests results of the PS modules for the phase-2 CMS outer tracker

The CMS Outer Tracker phase-2 upgrade is conditioned by the planned high-luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project. The high radiation levels and the large pileup require a high granularity and low mass detector and the capability to handle high data rates. The OT modules will provide hit information to the Level 1 Trigger to form track segments, which allows to keep the trigger rates at a sustainable level. The CMS OT uses silicon pixel-strip sensors (PS) modules, which contain a silicon strip sensor and a silicon macro-pixel sensor with an area of ($5 \times 10$)$cm^2$. The silicon strip and macro-pixel sensors are wire-bonded to two front-end hybrids (FEHs), interconnected with a power hybrid (POH) on one side and with an optical readout hybrid (ROH) on the opposite side. The rejection of low momentum tracks for the L1 track trigger is also performed in the FE electronics by locally correlating the signals (hits) from a pair of pixel-strip sensor (stubs). The performance tests for noise investigation of the PS modules are presented.

Speaker: Ilirjan Margjeka (INFN - Bari)

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Pisa_Meeting_16_Poster_IlirjanMargjeka.pdf

118 Characterization of analogue monolithic pixel sensors fabricated in 65 nm technology for the ALICE ITS3

CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) have become a prominent technology choice for tracking and vertexing detectors in high-energy physics
experiments over the last decades. The ALICE ITS3 project foresees the use of ultra-light MAPS, developed in the 65 nm imaging process, for the vertex
detector in the ALICE experiment at the LHC to improve the vertexing performance drastically. This new process, developed by an international consortium
of the ALICE ITS3 collaboration and the CERN EP R&D project, should enhance the overall MAPS performance, such as spatial & timing resolution, hit
rate capability, power dissipation, radiation hardness, and large sensitive area capability.
This contribution discusses the Analogue Pixel Test Structure (APTS), a small 6x6 pixel matrix with a fast direct analogue readout of the central 4x4
pixels, and the Circuit Exploratoire 65 (CE-65), featuring a 1k to 2k pixel matrix with a rolling shutter analogue readout. These prototypes are used to
understand the analogue properties of the TPSCo 65 nm technology and to compare the charge collection performance in different processes, pitches, pixel
geometries, and collection diode arrangements. This contribution presents recent results from lab and test beam character-
isation, detailing the global and in-pixel efficiency and the spatial resolution of the APTS with different pixel geometries and pitches. A quantitative evolution
of the charge collection and sharing among pixels in the CE-65 with the pitch and collection layer modification will be detailed. Attaining a spatial resolution
better than 3 µm with a 10 µm pitch and over 99% efficiency in the moderate irradiation environment of ALICE supports the viability of using 65 nm MAPS
for FCC-ee vertex detectors. This contribution will discuss the shared requirements that pave the way to implementing MAPS for the vertex detector for
FCC-ee, exploiting the synergy between the ALICE ITS3 project and FCC-ee.

Speaker: Kunal Gautam (VUB / UZH)

picture_KunalGautam.jpg

poster_APTS_CE65_PisaMeeting_KG.pdf

119 Qualification of pre-production 3D sensors for the new ATLAS ITk detector with test beams

The inner detector of the ATLAS experiment will be completely replaced with a new all-silicon tracking detector (ITk) during the Long Shutdown 3 (2026-28) to cope with the challenging conditions that will be posed by the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) after 2029.
The pixel detector will be located in the inmost part of ITk detector. As a fluence up to 2$\cdot$10$^{16}$ n$_{eq}$/cm$^2$ is expected in its innermost layer, 3D sensor technology was chosen to instrument the latter due to its radiation hardness. Sensors with 50x50 μm$^2$ and 25x100 μm$^2$ pixel cell size will be used in the endcaps and barrel regions, respectively, whose production is divided among two vendors, Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) and Stiftelsen for industriell og teknisk forskning (SINTEF).
During 2022 and 2023 pre-production 3D sensors of both vendors and both pixel sizes were manufactured and tested with pion beam at CERN SPS. A summary of the results will be given.

Speaker: Thibaud Carcone (LPNHE CNRS Paris)

poster-pisa_16th_T-CARCONE_lpnhe_atlas.pdf

Thibaud CARCONE_portrait.jpg

120 Polarization in CdZnTe and CdZnMn detectors

Wide bandgap alloys of II-VI group materials are widely used for gamma-photon detection. The more established CdZnTe alloy is recently being challenged by CdMnTe, which shown improved uniformity and wider tunable bandgap. These compounds mostly owe their high resistivity to deep level compensation process (Fermi level "pinning"). Therefore, such compound "semi-insulators" have high densities of traps. In spite of that fact, such detectors exhibit reasonable charge collection. However, when they are exposed to high fluxes, considerable polarization is often observed. The later occurs due to high volume trapping, leading to modification of internal electric field. In this work we present the polarization differences in CdZnTe and CdMnTe devices grown by the same method. The study is performed by reconstruction of electric filed, using improved TCT method.

Speaker: Ms Odelya Amzallag (Tel Aviv University)

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Poster Odelya Amzallag.pdf

121 3D simulation and experimental exploration of implementing double-sided 3D trench electrode detector with 8-inch CMOS Process

A double-sided 3D trench electrode detector (DS-3DTED) structure is proposed in this work to investigate manufacturing process implementation of 3D detectors for high energy physics, X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray cosmology applications. The device electrical characteristics are carried out with TCAD tool, including electric potential and electric field distribution, I-V, C-V, full depletion voltage, transient current and CCE with MIP incidence. In addition, a manufacture method to realize the DS-3DTED device is presented. Furthermore, a 311 μm deep and 10 μm wide trench has been achieved through Bosch process on the IMECAS 8-inch CMOS platform to verify the feasibility of the device structure. The maximum depth to width ratio is close to 105:1 when the trench width is 2 μm, which is a excellent foundation for the future 3D detectors manufacture with large fill factor and small dead zone.

Speaker: Prof. Zheng Li (Ludong University)

Manwen_Liu_poster_2024-pisameting.pdf

122 3D silicon pixel sensors for the CMS experiment tracker upgrade

The upgrade program of the CMS experiment in view of the LHC High Luminosity phase (HL-LHC) includes a replacement of the silicon pixel tracker. This is necessary to guarantee the same tracking performance of the current detector under harsher operating conditions, including higher radiation fluences and hit rates. The first layer of the central (barrel) detector will be located at radial distance of 3 cm from the interaction point where the radiation fluence after 7 years of operation will be $1.9\times10^{16}$ n$_{eq}$/cm$^2$. Following an extensive R & D program, comprising both laboratory and test beam measurements, 3D sensors will be employed in this layer due to their higher radiation tolerance and lower power consumption after irradiation. The final design of the sensors will be presented, together with the most recent laboratory measurements. The main focus will be on the most recents test beam measurements, before and after irradiation up to $1.5\times10^{16}$ n$_{eq}$/cm$^2$, that proved a hit detection efficiency larger than 96\% at normal incidence with less than 2\% masked pixels, for applied bias voltages larger than 120 V.

Speaker: Davide Zuolo (University of Colorado Boulder)

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poster-Zuolo.pdf

123 Performance of planar pixel modules for the Phase 2 Upgrade of the CMS Inner Tracker

During Long Shutdown 3, the entire CMS Tracking System will be replaced to operate during the High Luminosity LHC running phase with considerably increased luminosity. The pixel sensor modules for the CMS Inner Tracker will have to fulfill stringent requirements to operate in an extremely harsh radiation environment and to cope with the high data readout rate.

An extensive campaign has taken place to characterize the first half-size pixel chip demonstrator (RD53A), which led to the submission and production of the first full-size prototype chip (RD53B_CMS).

Sensor-readout chip assemblies have been extensively tested both in the laboratory and at the CERN and DESY testbeam facilities.

This study presents results on the analysis of testbeam data acquired with HPK planar pixel sensors interconnected with the RD53B_CMS readout chip, irradiated to fluences up to 1.0E16 neq/cm2. For all investigated fluences, the requirement of reaching a hit efficiency > 99% has been met, while keeping the percentage of pixels masked as noisy below 1%. Additionally, measurements of crosstalk levels observed in RD53B_CMS assemblies equipped with final design pixel sensors will be presented.

Speaker: Bianca Raciti (University of Hamburg)

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poster_raciti.pdf

124 Characterisation of the FBK EXFLU1 thin sensors with gain in a high fluence environment

The EXFLU1 batch of LGAD sensors on substrates of thickness between 15 and 45 $\mathrm{\mu}$m were exposed to various radiation grades between 1 $\times$ 10$^{-14}$ and 5 $\times$ 10$^{-15}$ n$_{\mathrm{eq}}$cm$^{-2}$ using the neutron reactor at JSI.

The sensor designs themselves, manufactured at FBK, are optimised to preserve characteristics at high fluences.

The latest studies of the effects of radiation have been performed, with the impact on thin sensors of varying design considered for their characterisation pre- and post-irradiation, and are presented.

Speaker: Robert Stephen White (INFN - Torino)

photo-EXFLU_LGAD_RobW.jpg

poster-EXFLU_LGAD_RobW.pdf

125 Remote detector for high radiation fluences

Certain applications of ionizing radiation detectors require extreme radiation hardness that is an especially sensitive issue for the electronic part of many of the detectors currently in use. Scintillator detectors have an advantage in the possibility of designing them in two remotely separated units, the all-optical detection unit and the electronic unit converting the optical signal to the electric signal convenient for further analysis. However, the scintillation light collection to the lightguide usually exploited to transfer the scintillation detector in such systems has substantial physical limitations.
We suggest a technique for the detection of high fluences of ionizing radiation with an on-spot all-optical detection unit optically connected with an optoelectronic unit converting the optical signal proportional to the irradiation fluence to an electrical signal. The detection of the ionizing radiation in the detector we propose is based on the change in the optical transmission of the detecting crystal due to the irradiation-generated nonequilibrium electron-hole pairs. To increase the spatial overlap of the volumes affected by the irradiation to be detected and the light beam used for probing of the change in absorption, various experimental configurations ensuring multiple transitions of the detecting crystal by the probing beam were tested and the optimal configuration was identified.
Ce-doped gadolinium aluminum gallium garnet was found to be a promising option as the crystal for the remote detection unit. Moreover, the gadolinium-containing detection crystal is efficient for neutron detection.
The capabilities of the detector with the detection properties optimized under optical excitation were tested under X-ray excitation. A linear response of the detector to the intensity of the ionizing radiation is evidenced.

Speaker: Gintautas Tamulaitis (Vilnius University)

picture Tamulaitis PMAD2024.jpg

poster Tamulaitis PMAD2024.pdf

126 Performance of the new tracker and timing ATLAS detectors at HL-LHC for pile-up suppression

The High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), currently foreseen to start towards 2029, will operate at an instantaneous luminosity of up to 7.5 × 1034 cm−2 s−1, corresponding to an unprecedented average number of proton-proton collisions per bunch crossing of up to 200. Efficient techniques to identify and suppress jets originating from pile-up interactions are critical to achieve the physics potential of the HL-LHC.

The ATLAS Inner Detector for the HL-LHC Run 4 will be upgraded to a full-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk). Thanks to the extended coverage of ITk, the techniques to tag and suppress pile-up currently in use will be applicabile also to the high eta region, however, with expected worse performance compared to that in the central region, due to the higher amount of material and the harsher environment.
The High-Granularity Timing Detector (HGTD), that that will be installed in the forward region for Run 4, will improve the pile-up suppression in that region through timing information at the 30-50 ps level.

In this talk an overview of the ITk and HGTD sub-detectors
will be given, with focus on their performance on the pile-up suppression for the reconstruction of high level objects.
Also, the impact of a possible additional timing detector in the central region,
enabling 4D Tracking beyond the Run 4 will be discussed.

Speaker: Marianna Testa (INFN - LNF)

IMG20240524082118.jpg

poster_PISA24_v5.pdf

127 Study of radiation effects in the test structures of ATLAS18 ITk strip sensor caused by CERN-PS 24 GeV/c protons

Silicon strip detectors in the Inner Tracker (ITk) of the upgraded ATLAS experiment at HL-LHC will have to operate in high radiation environment. The tracker is designed to withstand irradiation with 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence of 1.6e15 n$_{\mathrm{eq}}$/cm$^2$ in the strip sensor region. To achieve such radiation hardness, extensive irradiation studies were performed during development of sensors. These included irradiations with reactor neutrons as well as low (25 MeV and 70 MeV) and high (24 GeV) energy protons.
During four years of production of over 20000 sensors for the ITk, regular irradiations of test structures with neutrons and low energy protons are a part of production quality assurance (QA) procedures. Because of less frequent availability, irradiations with high energy protons are not part of QA, but irradiation campaigns with 24 GeV/c protons at CERN PS were carried out to check the effect of high energy hadrons on samples from production wafers. This is important because the balance of ionizing dose and bulk damage of protons at this energy is the closest to the one expected in the experiment from all sources.
After irradiation with 24 GeV/c protons few issues were observed: collected charge (CC) measured with miniature strip sensors was lower than expected in certain fluence range; unusual dependence of CC on annealing time at 60°C was observed. These effects initiated extensive investigations and initial results show that they could be caused by different radiation effects of 24 GeV/c protons compared to irradiations with lower energy protons or neutrons, by secondary particles generated by the passage of primary protons through material of the irradiation support and detectors and non-uniformities due to irradiation with narrow proton beam.
Results of studies of these effects based on CV-IV, CC and Edge-TCT measurements will be presented in this contribution.

Speaker: Igor Mandić (Jožef Stefan Institute)

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Poster_ID201_Mandic_V2.pdf

128 The OBELIX chip for the Belle II VTX Upgrade

The proposed upgrade of the Belle II Vertex Detector (VTX) uses the same OBELIX sensor on all its 5 layers.
OBELIX is a depleted monolithic active pixel sensor based on the TJ-Monopix2 chip, fabricated in a radiation
hard CMOS 180nm process.

The OBELIX pixel-matrix is inherited from its predecessor, in contrast the periphery is entirely reworked.
A newly designed 2-stage pixel memory matches Belle II trigger requirements, handling events with hit
rates up to 120MHz/cm2 at a 10us latency without buffer overflow. This logic also handles hit rate spikes of
600MHz/cm2 and 0.5us duration with less than 0.5% data loss. This tolerance to spikes is necessary to maintain
efficiency at the continuous injection scheme of the SuperKEKB collider.
In addition, OBELIX includes LDO regulators for supply voltages intending to simplyfy the chip integration into
the detector system.

To improve track reconstruction performance, an additional high precision timing module is included in the
periphery of OBELIX. A resolution of less than 3ns is expected, backed by measurements with TJ-Monopix2.
This feature is, however, limited to low hit rates and will only be enabled for the outer 3 layers of the VTX.

A new feature for the vertex detector introduced by OBELIX is the possibility to contribute to the trigger.
The chip can provide coarse hit information at low latency to the trigger system in order to build decisions
based on VTX tracks. The current implementation is intended as a proof of concept. A transmission time of 200 ns
is reached by reducing the matrix granularity to only 8 macropixels.

This poster will focus on the features of the OBELIX-1 chip currently under development. Details on the design
and implementation, as well as results of various performance simulations calibrated with real data from TJ-Monopix2
measurements will be presented.

Speaker: Maximilian Babeluk (HEPHY Vienna)

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poster-babeluk-obelix.pdf

129 TCAD investigation of Compensated LGAD Sensors for extreme fluence

Future frontier accelerators envisage the use of silicon sensors in environments with fluences exceeding 1$\times$$10^{17}$ 1 MeV $n_{eq}$/$cm^2$. Presently available silicon sensors can operate efficiently up to fluences of 2$\times$$10^{16}$ 1 MeV $n_{eq}$/$cm^2$, while the gain mechanism of Low-Gain Avalanche Diode (LGAD) sensors under irradiation is maintained up to a fluence of about 5$\times$$10^{15}$ 1 MeV $n_{eq}$/$cm^2$.
To extend the operational range of silicon detectors by more than one order of magnitude, an innovative approach has been employed in designing the implant responsible for signal multiplication, engineering a well-calibrated compensation of p and n dopants.
The new design, called Compensated LGAD, is devised to be more resilient to radiation. Both acceptor and donor atoms will undergo removal with irradiation, but if adequately engineered, their difference will remain constant, ensuring the gain multiplication mechanism even at extreme fluences. Therefore, the Compensated LGADs will empower the 4D tracking ability to a fluence of 1$\times$$10^{17}$ 1 MeV $n_{eq}$/$cm^2$ and above.
The FBK foundry released the first production of Compensated LGAD sensors at the end of 2022. In this work, the simulation outcomes of non-irradiated and irradiated Compensated LGAD devices will be presented. State-of-the-art Synopsys Sentaurus TCAD tools have been adopted for the purpose at hand, accounting for the radiation damage effects by means of the “New University of Perugia” numerical model. The comparison between measured and simulated I-V and C-V characteristics obtained before and after neutron irradiation represents the strategy to assess the acceptor and donor removal coefficient of compensated sensors. The forthcoming stages of Compensated LGAD design evolution will also be envisaged.

Speaker: Alessandro Fondacci (IOM-CNR / INFN - Perugia)

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poster-Fondacci_PM2024.pdf

130 Low-Gain Avalanche Diodes for the CMS Endcap Timing Layer

In order to cope with the demanding running conditions of the HL-LHC and to bring new and unique capabilities to the experiment, the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector will undergo a major upgrade. One novelty will be the introduction of a new MIP timing detector (MTD), which will allow the measurement of the time of charged particles with a resolution of 30-40 ps. The MTD will enable the use of 4D reconstruction algorithms and allow to discriminate, in the time domain, interaction vertexes within the same bunch crossing . To obtain the needed time resolution, the MTD component covering the 1.6 < |eta| < 3 region, also known as the Endcap Timing Layer (ETL), will exploit a new silicon-based technology, Low-Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGADs), read out by a custom-made ASIC called ETROC. LGAD devices feature an intrinsic gain of 10–30, provided by a highly doped implant, which allows to overcome the electronic’ noise and to achieve a low-jitter fast-rising signal that enables precision timing reconstruction for MIPs. Moreover, these sensors are also designed to be radiation tolerant and thus can maintain almost unchanged performances up to the end of the HL-LHC physics program.
This poster will provide an overview of the ETL LGADs and of the measurements performed on the latest LGADs prototypes to validate the sensor design. including the performance evolution as a function of the received radiation level. Radiation hardness of these novel detectors will be described in detail. Particular attention will also be given to the description of the recent beam tests of LGADs connected to the latest version of the ETROC chip, aimed at validating its design and functionalities.

Speaker: Leonardo Lanteri (INFN - Torino)

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Poster_PMm2024_Lanteri.pdf

131 Overview of the ATLAS ITk Strip System Tests

The new ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) will replace the current tracking detector of the ATLAS detector to cope with the challenging conditions for the Phase-II upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider experiment (LHC), the so-called High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). The new tracking detector is an all-silicon detector consisting of a pixel inner tracker and a silicon microstrips outer tracker, differentiated again in a central barrel section around the interaction point and two end-cap sections covering the forward regions for the collisions.
This contribution focuses on the results of the full system tests for the ITk strips detector, being the testbed for testing and evaluating the performance of several close-to-final detector components before production. These will also serve in the future for training and testing purposes of the detector during operation.
The barrel system test is conducted in SR1 at CERN and will consist of 8 staves - mechanical core structures loaded with rectangular short (~ 2.5 cm) and long (~5 cm) strip sensor modules. In a similar fashion, the system test for the end-caps is developed at DESY in Hamburg/Germany loaded with up to 12 petals - again a core structure loaded with trapezoidal shaped sensors of various lengths and strip pitches including the readout and power electronics. The staves and petals are mechanically held in place within a support structure and connected to the electrical, optical and cooling services as realistic as possible as in the latter detector integration. As such it is possible to validate the detector design, verify the detector DAQ and perform tests with the services, e.g. concerning the dual-phase CO${}_{2}$ cooling.
This contribution gives an overview of the developed system tests for the ITk strip detector, summarizes the current status of the two sites, and shows a selection of its results and performance measurements.

Speaker: Sergio Diez Cornell (DESY)

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poster-ITkStripSystemTests.pdf

132 Development and first tests of the Arc-detector: a Schottky CdTe Medipix3RX photon-counting detector for X-rays.

This work will present the development and first tests of the Arc-detector. The Arc-detector is a multichip CdTe-Medipix3RX [1] detector system developed to bring the advantages of photon-counting detectors to applications in the hard X-ray range of energies. The detector head consists of 24 modules arranged in an ARC shape, covering a scattering angle of 100°. Each module consists of a monolithic CdTe Schottky electron collection sensor of 14.2 mm × 42.6 mm area and one mm thickness bump-bonded to 3 MedipixRX ASICs. The readout electronics at the front-end is programmed via a Xilinx Artix-7 module. A total of 12 fibre-optic links provide the data channel from the detector head to the back-end data acquisition electronics, performed by two FEM-II FPGA cards based around a Xilinx Virtex7-690 FPGA. Schottky CdTe sensors undergo polarization, which increases with temperature, flux and the longer the HV is applied. To minimize polarization, the detector was water cooled and periodically the HV bias was refreshed. Results of the laboratory module characterization describing the optimization of these parameters will be presented. The Arc-detector is now deployed on beam line I15 at Diamond Light Source, and first tests with high flux hard X-ray beam have been performed. Results on how the detector performs under these conditions will be discussed. In addition, the detector was developed to perform X-ray Pair Distribution Function experiments. Examples of the performance of the detector from real applications using this technique will be included and evaluated.

Speaker: Eva Gimenez (Diamond Light Source)

FDFP_poster258_EvaGimenez.pdf

133 Performance of 3D trench pixel sensors irradiated up to $10^{17}~n_{eq}~cm^{-2}$

The continuous increase of instantaneous luminosity in high energy physics experiments will severely affect the occupancy of tracking detectors, drastically reducing event reconstruction efficiency.
In the case of the Upgrade II of the LHCb experiment at CERN, the detector will operate at an instantaneous luminosity of about $1.5\times 10^{34}~cm^{-2}s^{-1}$. In these conditions, approximately 2000 tracks from 40 proton-proton interactions will cross the vertex detector every 25 ns. To properly reconstruct primary and secondary vertices the development of sensors and electronics capable of measuring the particle hit time with an accuracy of 50 ps, together with a spatial resolution of about 10 µm and an unprecedented radiation hardness, is needed.
3D trench silicon pixels, developed by the INFN TimeSPOT collaboration, is a technology aiming to fulfil these requirements. These 150 µm active thickness, 55 µm $\times$ 55 µm silicon pixels, which consist of 40µm-long planar trench electrodes located between two continuous bias electrodes, provide a time resolution of about 10 ps and 99% detection efficiency for minimum ionizing particle detection. Two irradiation campaigns of these sensors have been carried out in 2021 and 2023, with maximum irradiation fluences of $2.5\times10^{16}~n_{eq}~cm^{-2}$ and $1.0\times10^{17}~n_{eq}~cm^{-2}$ respectively. Results from beam test and laboratory characterizations of the irradiated sensors will be shown at the Conference. 3D trench-type silicon sensors are proving to be a promising candidate for future vertex detectors operating at very high instantaneous luminosity.

Speaker: Andrea Lampis (INFN - Cagliari)

poster-Lampis_16th_pisa_meeting.pdf

134 Recent results and perspectives of the Monopix Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (DMAPS)

The integration of readout electronics and sensor into a single entity of silicon in monolithic pixel detectors lowers the material budget while simplifying the production procedure compared to the conventional hybrid pixel detector concept. The increasing availability of high-resistivity substrates and high-voltage capabilities in commercial CMOS processes facilitate the application of depleted monolithic active pixel sensors (DMAPS) in modern particle physics experiments. TJ-Monopix2 and LF-Monopix2 chips are the most recent large-scale prototype DMAPS in their respective development line originally designed for the ATLAS Inner Tracker outer layer environment.

LF-Monopix2 is a 1x2 cm² chip with a 50 x 150 um² pixel pitch design in 150 nm LFoundry technology. All in-pixel electronics are embedded in a large charge collection electrode relative to the pixel size, rendering short drift distances and a homogeneous electric field across a pixel. The resulting sensor capacitance of O(250fF) originating from the collection node compromises the noise performance requiring more analog power for optimal operation. LF-Monopix2 wafers have successfully been thinned-down to 100 um and backside processed.

Designed in 180 nm Tower Semiconductor technology, TJ-Monopix2 features a 33x33 um² pixel pitch on a 2x2 cm² chip. The small charge collection electrode relative to the pixel size requires the separation of the in-pixel electronics into p-wells. The resulting small detector capacitance of O(3fF) allows for large signal-to-noise ratio with low power consumption. Additionally, process modifications are implemented to minimize regions with low electric field and improve the charge collection efficiency impaired by the long drift distances.

In this contribution, the latest laboratory characterizations and beam test results of both DMAPS are presented. Timing studies of TJ-Monopix2 as well as performance of highly irradiated LF-Monopix2 chips after a fluence of up to 2e15 neq/cm² are highlighted. Furthermore, potential future applications of these sensors in particle physics experiments are discussed.

Speaker: Fabian Huegging (University of Bonn)

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Poster-Huegging-PM2024.pdf

135 Development of a MAPS Upstream Tracker for the LHCb Upgrade II

The Upstream Tracker (UT) is a crucial component in the LHCb tracking system. The UT, currently being integrated in the LHCb Upgrade I detector, is a silicon microstrip detector that speeds up track reconstruction, reduces the rate of ghost tracks, and optimizes LHCb capabilities of reconstructing long-lived particles. LHCb is planning another major upgrade to be installed during Long-Shutdown 4 to fully exploit the potential of HL-LHC. This upgrade aims at increasing the peak luminosity by a factor of 7.5. This implies the need to cope with higher event pile-ups and occupancy beyond the ones envisaged for the current UT. In addition, the pattern recognition challenges are more severe, and the detector needs to withstand higher radiation fluences. A MAPS-based Upstream Tracker has been proposed for Upgrade II to meet these challenging specifications. The design of the UT for Upgrade II will be presented. In particular, we will discuss the sensor technology options, and the simulation work undertaken to optimize the design.

Speaker: Mingjie Feng

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poster-Feng-PM2024.pdf

136 Characterization results of MAPS digital prototypes for the ALICE ITS3

The three innermost layers of the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS2) will be replaced by a truly cylindrical tracker, the ITS3, to be ready for LHC Run 4 (2029-2032). The ITS3 will be composed of three layers, each made by two self-supporting, ultra-thin (≤50 µm) flexible Monolithic Active Pixel silicon Sensors (MAPS) of large area (O(10×26 cm$^2$)).

The final sensor will be realized using the 65 nm CMOS imaging process and stitching technology. Multiple small-scale test structures were included in the first production run Multiple Layer Reticle 1 (MLR1) to validate the 65 nm CMOS imaging technology. First large-scale stitched MAPS were included in the second production run Engineering Run 1 (ER1).

The pixel cell performance has been qualified on the MLR1 Digital Pixel Test Structures (DPTS) with laboratory and in-beam measurements. The large-area (1.4×25.9 cm$^2$) ER1 MOnolithic Stitched Sensor (MOSS) prototype has been used to prove the stitching principle and evaluate the detection efficiency and spatial resolution. This contribution will give an overview of the most recent results of the digital prototype tests.

Speaker: Anna Villani (INFN - LNS)

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poster-digital_test_structures_ALICE_ITS3.pdf

137 Innovations in silicon detector technologies for next-generation experiments: improving timing precision of LGADs for ALICE 3

In the dynamic realm of silicon detector advancements, the pursuit of consistently improved timing precision has witnessed remarkable progress in recent years. Yet, the challenge remains to unlock the full potential for realizing large-area systems, showcasing the extraordinary time resolution demanded by next-generation experiments.

In the context of the future ALICE 3 experiment (2035, LHC at CERN), an intensive R&D program is actively addressing the challenge of finding a 20-picosecond technology for the Time-Of-Flight detector. Various silicon-based devices are currently under evaluation. This presentation provides an overview of the ongoing R&D efforts focused on a key technology: Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGADs).

In light of their impressive timing performance, LGADs are earmarked for numerous detector upgrades. However, the ambitious requirements of ALICE 3, coupled with the fact that these studies could have a significant impact on various future scenarios, such for example FCCee, have motivated substantial and dedicated R&D studies. Tests of 25 and 35 μm sensors highlighted the potential of a thinner design for improved time resolution. Consequently, comprehensive studies were conducted on progressively thinner sensors, arriving to test the first 15 μm ever produced by FBK, achieving a time resolution well below 20 ps. Moreover, to address the small signal at the input of the electronics, the innovative concept of double-LGAD was introduced and tested for the first time. Notably, this innovative approach not only yields the significant benefit of an enhancement of the charge at the input of electronics but also translates into an improvement in overall time resolution. Finally, the results of a very recent investigation on how time resolution depends on the angle of incident particles will be shown.

The talk will include an outline of the new key results and insights, along with a preview of the upcoming steps in these technological advancements.

Speaker: Sofia Strazzi (Università di Bologna / INFN)

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Poster-StrazziSofia_PisaMeeting.pdf

138 First Insights into the Super-gq Depfet: An Improved High Performance Sensor with Increased Gain and Sub-electron Noise Level Capabilities.

In recent years, DePFET (Depleted P-channel Field Effect Transistor) based sensors have been deployed for various applications, including particle tracking at Belle II experiment and for X-ray spectroscopy on board the planetary science mission BepiColombo. Future applications include real-time imagers for transmission electron microscopes (TEMs) and X-ray imaging spectroscopy on board the ATHENA satellite. These sensors have been customized to meet specific application requirements, delivering high frame rates, accurate position resolution, Fano-limited energy resolution, or maximized dynamic range for TEMs. In essence, DePFETs operate as p-channel field-effect transistor built upon a high-resistive, fully depleted silicon substrate. By placing a deep-n implant below the transistor channel, a potential minimum for electrons is being created and a internal gate is formed. Charge generated in the bulk is collected in this internal gate, whereby the conductivity of the transistor is modulated and the number of signal electrons can be determined.
Recently, the super-gq DePFET technology was developed. Here, a significant improvement of the signal to noise ratio is achieved by decoupling the sizes of internal and external gate. By adding an n-implant that is added to the source side of the device only in a small region below the channel, limiting the internal gate to this area. With respect to simulations, this enables a considerable increase in charge gain by a factor of three (1.7 nA/e-) and white noise of less than 1 e- ENC, while at the same time limiting impact ionization near the drain end of the channel. These improvements make super-gq DePFETs potentially capable of reaching sub-electron noise levels.
A test production of this and other technologies such as Quadropix, Infinipix and RNDR DePFETs was recently completed. Initial measurements have been carried out and provide first insights into the improvement of amplification, noise and the physical verification of the concept.

Speakers: Sebastian Stadler (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft), Mr Sebastian Stadler (Semiconductor Lithography of the Max Planck Society)

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super-gq-DePFET_Poster_ID346.pdf

super-gq-DePFET_VideoPoster_ID346.mp4

139 Characterization of the RD50-MPW4 HV-CMOS pixel sensor

The RD50-MPW4, the latest iteration in the HV-CMOS pixel sensor series developed collaboratively by the CERN-RD50-CMOS working group, marks a significant advancement in the RD50-MPW series. Rooted in generic research and development, the RD50-MPW program aims to address challenges posed by future physics experiments, such as HL-LHC and FCC, focusing on radiation tolerance, granularity, and timing resolution. Fabricated by LFoundry using their 150nm High Voltage CMOS process and delivered in December 2023, this sensor incorporates an active matrix of 64 x 64 pixels with a pitch of 62$\mu m$. The chip uses a column-drain readout architecture in the FEI3 double-column style.

While the predecessor, the RD50-MPW3, is an advanced prototype in our R&D program (mid-sized pixel matrix, with advanced digital periphery), problems due to noise coupling effects between the digital periphery and the pixels, caused limitations on threshold settings to $\gtrsim 5ke^-$ while also restricting matrix operation to the top half.

The improved architecture of RD50-MPW4 effectively mitigates crosstalk through carefully separated power domains between digital and analog components, enabling more sensitive threshold settings while simultaneously operating the entire matrix. A new post-processing step facilitating backside-biasing, as well as the implementation of an improved guard ring structure allowing the RD50-MPW4 to accommodate bias voltages of up to 600V further boost the radiation hardness of the revised design.

This presentation will summarize preliminary measurements and compare the results with the predecessor chip, highlighting the improvements in our latest design. Laboratory assessments, including I-V measurements, an in-depth exploration of the trimDAC capabilities in harmonizing pixel responses, and an examination of the impact of threshold settings on pixel response, will be presented. Additionally, insights from test beams conducted at DESY and the medical facility MedAustron will contribute valuable information on the sensor's spatial resolution, cluster-size distribution, and total as well as in-pixel efficiency.

Speaker: Bernhard Pilsl (HEPHY Vienna)

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poster-pisa24-pilslb.pdf

140 Large area curved silicon modules for future trackers

For many years there has been an aspiration within the community to develop curved silicon detectors for particle physics applications. We present the results from 10x10cm low mass support modules as a part of the “ZeroMass” project that aims to minimise the material budget for tracking and vertexing systems for future colliders. We use 50 μm thick DC coupled strip sensors from Micron Semiconductor Ltd., with a carbon composite support frame. Our current module demonstrators use a radius of curvature of 15cm, typical of that used for the outer parts of large pixel systems, or the inner part of strip trackers and the outer part of large radii vertex detectors. The material budget obtained varies from an X0 of 0.05% in the active area to 0.62% in the support structure, with an average of 0.28%. There is further scope for material budget reduction in applying the concept and methods to large instruments for future detector systems, which we also discuss.

Speaker: Adrian Bevan (Queen Mary University of London)

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poster-2024_PisaInstrumnetationZMD.pdf

141 Measurements and TCAD simulations of guard-ring structures of thin silicon sensors before and after irradiation

The next generation of HEP experiments at future hadronic colliders (e.g., FCC-hh) will require tracking detectors to operate efficiently up to very high fluences (~ 1 $\times$ 10$^{17}$ 1 MeV n$_{eq}$/cm$^{2}$). The design of the peripheral region, i.e., the guard-ring (GR) structure, is crucial to obtain high performing silicon detectors able to sustain high voltage values with minimum leakage current injection into the core region, especially when small substrate thicknesses are used.
In a recent R&D batch produced at FBK in the framework of the eXFlu project, different optimisation studies of the GR structures for thin substrates (ranging from 15 to 45 $\mathrm{\mu}$m) up to high fluences have been addressed. These studies have been enabled thanks to Technology CAD simulations of GR structures, accounting for both different design strategies, e.g. zero-guard and multi-guard structures, extension of the periphery region, as well as the comprehensive bulk and surface damage effects induced by radiation on silicon sensors. Furthermore, an extensive test campaign has been performed on these GR structures, both before and after irradiation (up to 2.5 $\times$ 10$^{15}$ 1 MeV n$_{eq}$/cm$^{2}$), to validate the development framework. This involves an analysis of the agreement between simulated and experimental data obtained from the sensors, and the impact of the various design options on their performance.
This contribution outlines the recent advances in this R&D activity, aiming to guide the design and optimisation of the GR structures for the future productions of thin silicon sensors for high fluence applications.

Speaker: Tommaso Croci (INFN - Perugia)

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poster_Croci_381_PisaMeeting_2024_v2.pdf

142 Fighting cold noise and early breakdown on the ATLAS ITk strips tracker

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment is nearing the end of life at its current configuration. However, numerous upgrades across the machine and its detectors are scheduled to extend the lifetime of the experiment for more than an additional decade. The Inner Tracker (ITk) is the new, all-silicon tracker that will replace the current Inner Detector of the ATLAS spectrometer at the end of run 3 of the LHC experiment, in preparation for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). The ITk consists of an innermost region, the pixel detector, surrounded by the strips tracker in the outermost layers. After many years of development and an extensive pre-production program, the silicon modules of the strips tracker were ready to enter its production phase. However, two standing issues showed up in the latest stages of pre-production that prevented the module production to be initiated. The first one is related to the apparition of very high noise in localized regions of the modules under certain conditions, and in particular when tested at cold temperatures. It is commonly referred to as the "cold noise" effect. The second effect appears mostly once the silicon modules are loaded and cooled down onto their local supports, in which a fraction of the silicon sensors exhibit very low breakdown voltages. The apparition of physical cracking of the sensors was quickly identified as the main reason for this effect, known as "early breakdown". In this contribution I will describe in detail both of these standing issues, the current understanding of their causes and the reasons why they were not detected at an early stage, the mitigation avenues investigated and being adopted at the moment to correct and prevent those features, which should allow us to initiate the production phase, and a look towards the future of the strips ITk production.

Speaker: Sergio Diez Cornell (DESY)

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poster-ITkStripCNCracking_095414.pdf

143 Recent results with MALTA, a radiation hard CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel sensor

MALTA is a fully-depleted Monolithic Active Pixel sensor (MAPs) developed in the Tower 180nm CMOS image sensor process. Compared to conventional tracking sensors, MAPs offer the potential for improved tracking performance and also easier integration and reduced cost due to the merger of readout and sensor. The MALTA pixel architecture is designed for high-rate and fast response time, and employs a small charge collection electrode to minimise input capacitance; design choices which lead overall to lower noise, higher voltage signal and lower power consumption. The MALTA sensor has been developed with a small 34.4 x 34.4 µm^2 pixels to achieve excellent pointing resolution and the advantages of monolithic design, while at the same time maintaining performance in high radiation environments. Radiation-hard devices are shown to have excellent timing and signal performance after 1x10^15 1 MeV neq/cm^2 in non-ionizing energy loss and 100 Mrad in total ionizing dose, values that satisfy the requirements for future collider applications.

Second-generation MALTA2 sensors were developed on both epitaxial silicon and also high-resistivity Czochralski silicon, to ensure efficient charge collection and excellent timing after irradiation. Sensors have been tested in the SPS CERN Test Beam using the MALTA beam telescope, and also using a pulsed laser based Edge Transient Current Technique. Irradiated MALTA2 variants have been characterised for performance in terms of efficiency and cluster size, and the latest results will be presented. The tests show that MALTA is an interesting prospect for future collider experiments, providing both very good tracking capabilities and radiation hardness in harsh radiation environments. Finally, progress on the next generation of MALTA devices will be presented.

Speaker: Steve Worm (DESY / Universität zu Berlin)

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poster-Worm.pdf

144 Monolithic AC-LGADs, a new frontier in high-performance particle tracking in 4 dimensions

In this contribution we present an innovative sensor concept suitable for 4D particle tracking, which is the result of combining two well-known technology solutions: the standard CMOS platform, on one side, and the AC-LGAD readout design, on the other. Being an evolution of the LGAD concept, AC-LGADs get rid of the no-gain area introduced by the isolation implants around each pixel thanks to the so-called RSD (Resistive AC-Coupled Silicon Detectors) paradigm, which consists in the use of a dielectric layer, that induces a capacitive coupling into the readout pads, and a $n^+$-type implant, acting as a resistive discharge path for multiplied charges.

While the monolithic approach ensures the most compact and effective coupling between the sensor and the front-end electronics, the AC-LGAD concept represents one of the most promising solutions to achieve high levels of space and time resolution, thanks to the internal gain and the particular readout design allowing the 100% fill factor. This combination could be the enabling technology for new generations of high-precision trackers designed to operate in high-luminosity environments, where the low power, low material budget and high efficiency requirements are essential.

Based on our consolidated experience in developing Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS), we designed a numerical simulation framework to investigate the compatibility between the AC-LGAD concept and the 110-nm CMOS technology node. Our analyses show that these two aspects can be merged in a unique device, and that monolithic AC-LGAD sensors can be developed upon a standard process, based only on common fabrication parameters. Besides the device proof-of-concept, we will also present a numerical characterization of the dynamic performances of such innovative detector in terms of space and time resolution, through combined TCAD and Montecarlo studies.

Speaker: Giulia Gioachin (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

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poster 2024Gioachin_PM.pdf

145 Study of bulk damage of high gamma irradiated n+-in-p silicon diodes

The bulk damage of p-type silicon detectors caused by high doses of gamma irradiation has been studied. The study was carried out on different types of n+-in-p silicon diodes with various silicon bulk resistivities. The diodes were irradiated by Cobalt-60 gamma source to total ionizing doses ranging from 0.50 up to 8.28 MGy, and annealed for 80 minutes at 60°C. The main goal of the study was to characterize the gamma-radiation induced displacement damage by measuring current-voltage characteristics (IV), and the evolution of the full depletion voltage (VFD) with total ionizing dose by measuring capacitance-voltage characteristics (CV). It has been observed that the bulk leakage current increases linearly with total ionizing dose, and the damage coefficient depends on the initial resistivity of the silicon diode. The effective doping concentration, and therefore also VFD, significantly decreases with increasing total ionizing dose. We assume that the decrease of effective doping concentration is caused by the effect of acceptor removal. The Transient Current Technique (TCT) was used to verify the full depletion voltage and to extract the electric field distribution and the sign of the space charge of the silicon diodes irradiated to the lowest and the highest delivered total ionizing doses. Another noteworthy observation from this study is that the IV and CV measurements of the gamma irradiated diodes did not reveal any annealing effect.

Speaker: Marcela Mikestikova (Institute of Physics, CAS)

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poster_PISA2024_Marcela_Gamma_irradiation_iveta.pdf

146 TCAD modeling of radiation induced defects in 4H-SiC diodes and LGADs

The material properties of Silicon-Carbide (SiC) make it a promising candidate for application as a particle detector at high beam rates. Compared to Silicon (Si), the increase in charge carrier saturation velocity and breakdown voltage allow for high intrinsic time resolution while mitigating pile-ups. The larger band gap potentially improves radiation hardness, which, in combination with its good thermal conductivity, efficiently suppresses dark current after high levels of preceding irradiation as well as at high beam rates.
However, current manufacturing standards of epitaxial layers restrict the active thickness of high-quality SiC, thus limiting the signal amplitude. While literature indicates a strong correlation between the Si/C ratio present during epitaxial growth and intrinsic impurity levels, the formation of radiation-induced defects is still not sufficiently understood.

This work presents a bulk radiation damage model for TCAD simulations considering the major lifetime killers of 4HSiC (Z$_{1,2}$ & Et$_{6,7}$). Measurements on 50 µm 4H-SiC pad diodes that have been neutron-irradiated at various fluxes ranging from $5\cdot 10^{14}\ n_{eq}/cm^2$ to $1\cdot 10^{16}\ n_{eq}/cm^2$ are used for development and validation. Radiation-induced damage parameters, such as cross-sections and introduction rates, are determined using the optimizer tool of Synopsys TCAD. The model accurately predicts a low increase in dark current levels, flattening of the detector capacitance, degradation in charge collection efficiency (CCE), and signal detection capabilities under forward bias conditions up to high voltages.
Furthermore, model predictions on the detector performance of an irradiated 4H-SiC low gain avalanche detector (LGAD) will be shown. The employed structure is based on a recently developed design to increase the signal output via controllable intrinsic carrier amplification.

Speaker: Mr Thomas Bergauer (Institute of High Energy Physics (HEPHY), Austrian Academy of Sciences (OEAW))

TCAD_modeling_of_radiation_induced_defects_in_4H-SiC_diodes_and_LGADs_Philipp_Gaggl.pdf

147 Surface-state induced inter-electrode isolation of n-on-p devices in mixed-field and 𝛾-irradiation environments

Surface damage caused by ionizing radiation in SiO$_2$-passivated silicon particle detectors consists mainly of the accumulation of a positively charged layer along with trapped-oxide-charge and interface traps inside the oxide and close to the Si/SiO$_2$-interface. High density positive interface net charge can be detrimental to the operation of a multi-channel $n$-on-$p$ sensor since the inversion layer generated under the Si/SiO$_2$-interface can cause loss of position resolution by creating a conduction channel between the electrodes, which is typically addressed by including additional isolation implants ($p$-stop, $p$-spray) between n$^+$-electrodes. In the investigation of the radiation-induced accumulation of oxide charge and interface traps, a capacitance-voltage characterization study of n/$\gamma$ (mixed field)- and $\gamma$-irradiated Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) capacitors showed that close agreement between measurement and simulation was possible when oxide charge density was complemented by both acceptor- and donor-type deep interface traps ($N_\textrm{it}$) with densities comparable to the oxide charges. Tuned densities show substantially higher introduction rates of $N_\textrm{it}$ in mixed-field environment than for $\gamma$-irradiations. Corresponding inter-electrode resistance ($R_\textrm{int}$) simulations of an $n$-on-$p$ sensor with tuned oxide-charge and interface-trap parameters show considerably higher $R_\textrm{int}$-levels for mixed-field irradiation as a result of the higher introduction rates of $N_\textrm{it}$, that additionally make the isolation performance independent of the presence of an isolation implant between the electrodes. The beneficial impact of radiation-induced accumulation of deep interface traps on inter-electrode isolation indicates that position sensitive $n$-on-$p$ sensors without isolation implants may be feasible in the future HEP-experiments with mixed field/particle dominated radiation environment.

Speaker: Timo Peltola (Texas Tech University)

poster_TPeltola_Pisa2024_18052024.pdf

TP_TTU1.jpg

148 Italian cluster technical solutions for the Quality Control tests to the modules of the ITk detector

In the era of high-luminosity LHC, it is anticipated that the instantaneous luminosity will achieve unprecedented levels, leading to the occurrence of up to 200 proton-proton interactions during a typical bunch crossing. In response to the resulting surge in occupancy, bandwidth demands, and radiation damage, the ATLAS Inner Detector is slated for replacement by an all-silicon system known as the Inner Tracker (ITk). The innermost segment of the ITk will be comprised of a pixel detector, featuring an active area spanning approximately 13 square meters. To address evolving requirements related to radiation hardness, power dissipation, and production yield, multiple silicon sensor technologies will be incorporated across the five barrel and end-cap layers.

The ITk detector will be built in different laboratories all around the world. Several institutes are actively involved in the ITk project assembling and testing prototype modules, that have been constructed to assess their production efficiency. Testing sites perform the so-called quality control (QC) tests. The ITk community defines requirements for QC testing both prototypes and modules, and provides common software tools as well as possible technical solutions. Each laboratory must qualify for the QC activity by demonstrating the chosen solutions are compliant with requirements.

In this contribution the relevance of the QC procedures will be outlined, focusing on the custom structures and items developed by the Italian laboratories to improve the quality of the tests and to satisfy the requirements imposed by the Collaboration.

Speaker: Giuseppe Carratta (INFN - Bologna)

Picture_Carratta.jpg

Poster_Carratta.pdf

Industrial Round Table "Industry and Research: Drivers of Sustainable Innovation"

Participants: CAEN, D-ORBIT, FBK, Galli&Morelli, Micron Semiconductor, Sematron Italia

Convener: Mariangela Cestelli Guidi (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

Applications to Industrial and Societal Challenges - Oral session (S5)

17:10 Coffee break

149 System for Radiation Dose Distribution Monitoring in Radiotherapy Treatment Planning

According to World Health Organization (WHO) cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020, or nearly one in six deaths. Each year, an estimated half a million children and adolescents develop cancer. A correct cancer diagnosis is essential for appropriate and effective treatment. Often treatment includes radiotherapy, especially when other options like surgery are limited due to the cancer type or location of the tumor. Therefore under a research project “A reconfigurable detector for measuring the spatial distribution of radiation dose for applications in the preparation of individual patient treatment plans” we developed a scalable detection system for evaluation of the dose distributions in 3D phantom during the preparation of the treatment plans under the photon radiotherapy procedure. Having a fast, efficient, and safe treatment is essential for every patient. Therefore, the development of a system capable of monitoring the real-time dose deposition in 3D can significantly improve the procedure, resulting in safer and faster treatment. This, in turn, enables hospitals to assist more patients effectively.

The system consists of a configurable 3D phantom that is based on tissue-equivalent printed scintillator cubes. It also includes a dedicated data acquisition (DAQ) system. The phantom can be fully customized to allow for setting arbitrary 3D configurations, with a granularity of 1 cm3 (possibly shrunken to 0.125 cm3). The measurement system is based on multichannel photomultiplier tubes, which are readout by a dedicated application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). This ASIC is controlled by a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and managed by specialized software. During the conference, we will present the design and performance of the system, along with the results obtained during test-beams in the treatment plant using a therapeutic accelerator.

Speaker: Dr Bartosz Mindur (AGH University of Krakow)

Mindur_Bartosz_Dose3DFuture.pdf

150 Positron emission tomography imaging with measurements of the polarization-correlated Compton events with single-layer gamma-ray polarimeters

During the positron emission tomography (PET) scan, decaying radionuclide emits a positron, which annihilates with an electron from the surrounding tissue. In this process, two photons are emitted back-to-back, with 511 keV energies, and are subsequently detected by the scanner detectors. These two photons also have orthogonal polarizations, a fundamental property that has not yet been utilized in conventional PET imaging. Polarization correlation offers an opportunity to improve the reconstructed image quality by reducing the random background noise, which lacks this property. To test this possibility, a novel type of PET scanner with four single-layer Compton polarimeters, has been developed and commissioned. Four detector modules are mounted on the sturdy rotating annular construction, which enables them to precisely rotate around the source at different diameters. The detector modules consist of four 8 x 8 crystal (GAGG:Ce and/or LYSO:Ce) matrices, with either 2.2 mm or 3.2 mm pitch. The identically pitched modules, mounted on opposite sides of the ring, could be used to determine and reconstruct the polarization correlations of the emitted annihilation quanta by measuring the azimuthal angles of the Compton scattered photons in the modules. The scanner was tested with various sources, such as Ge-68 line sources and the NEMA phantom filled with Ga-68, at the University Hospital Centre Zagreb. Data acquisition and processing are performed with TOFPET2 ASIC readout system and analyzed with different event selection criteria. Images are reconstructed with OMEGA software using the Ordered Subsets Expectation Maximization (OSEM) algorithm, with image analysis conducted in MATLAB. We will report on the scanner's properties, as well as show for the first time images of the clinically relevant sources using polarization-correlated Compton events. We will compare them with the images obtained using photoelectric events and discuss the imaging's background reduction potential.

Speaker: Ana Marija Kožuljević (University of Zagreb)

PisaMeet2024_amk.pdf

151 Advancements in DOI-capable TOF-PET modules based on High-Frequency Readout

High-frequency (HF) front-end electronics are an attractive solution for exploiting fast light production mechanisms in crystals and achieving excellent performance in TOF-PET applications. They have demonstrated improved time resolution by allowing the lowering of the leading-edge detection threshold. This enables the use of the fastest photons produced in the crystals, such as Cherenkov emission, and facilitates event discrimination in heterostructures made of a combination of fast and dense scintillators.

Heterostructured scintillators are emerging as a trade-off between the high sensitivity and fast timing of TOF-PET detectors. They consist of stacks of alternating layers of two materials with complementary properties: high stopping power (BGO) and ultrafast timing (plastic). However, layering is a limiting factor for the best achievable time resolution, as it worsens light transport. This effect can be mitigated by retrieving depth-of-interaction (DOI) information. To address this issue, a double-sided readout method or a light-sharing mechanism in single-side readout using a matrix of scintillators coupled to an array of SiPMs can be employed to identify the DOI and correct for the induced bias. For the light-sharing method to work, readout integration in a multi-channel scheme is required.

We present the achievement of 174 $\pm$ 6 ps coincidence timing resolution (CTR) and 6.40 $\pm$ 0.04 mm DOI resolution in single-pixel heterostructured scintillators of 3x3x20 mm$^3$ using double-sided HF readout. Additionally, the integration of a multi-channel HF readout board to a matrix of 4x4 LYSO 3.1x3.1x15 mm$^3$ allows to achieve a CTR lower than 130 ps. Finally, we outline the steps toward the implementation of this readout to a heterostructured scintillator matrix.

Speaker: Giulia Terragni (CERN / Technical University of Vienna)

Advancements_in_DOI-capable_TOF-PET_modules_based_on_High-Frequency_Readout_GiuliaTerragni.pdf

152 From Dark Matter Searches to Proton Therapy: measuring target fragmentation with nanometric nuclear emulsions

Proton therapy is a cancer treatment employed for deep solid tumors or those near organs at risk, that exploits the advantages of the protons’ depth-dose profile. The efficacy of this therapy is currently hindered by significant uncertainties surrounding the Relative Biological Effectiveness (RBE) of proton beams. An important contribution to these uncertainties is related to the production of highly-ionizing and short ranged secondary fragments through inelastic nuclear interactions.

Data regarding the production of target fragments is limited because of the challenges involved in detecting tracks at the micro-meter scale. The DAMON (Direct meAsureMent of target fragmentatiON) project is aimed at making, for the first time ever, a direct measurement of target fragments produced by a proton beam.
To address this, a novel kind of fine-grained nuclear emulsions known as “Nano-Imaging Trackers” (NITs) have been employed as target and tracking device. NITs have been originally developed by the NEWSdm collaboration for directional dark matter search through induced nuclear recoils. The sensitive elements of NITs, AgBr crystals with an average diameter of 70 nm, are dispersed in a gelatine containing Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen and other elements present in the human body. The main advantage of this kind of detector is the extremely high spatial resolution which is the result of a granularity equal to 1 sensitive element per 140 nm. An R&D is on-going to optimize NITs for the study of target fragmentation.

To read-out NITs, a dedicated process has been developed exploiting both a fast scanning microscope and a super-resolution optical scanning microscope.

A first pilot test was performed in February 2023 by exposing a bulk of NITs to protons at 211 MeV. Results of this exposure will be presented in this talk, demonstrating the capabilities of this detector for the study of target fragmentation.

Speaker: Vincenzo Boccia (Università di Napoli / INFN)

VB_FromDM_to_PT_PM2024.pdf

153 A novel detector for 4D tracking in particle therapy

An innovative beam monitor for particle therapy applications was developed to count single protons and carbon ions in clinical beams and was integrated with a Time-to-Digital Converter to measure particles’ crossing time.

The detector exploits thin silicon sensors, which show sensitivity to single particles and fast charge collection times allowing to reach large counting rates. A 60 µm thick PiN diode and a 50 µm thick Low Gain Avalanche Diode are used for detecting respectively carbon ions and protons. The sensitive area of both the sensors is 2.7 × 2.7 $\mathrm{cm^{2}}$, enough to cover the cross section of a pencil beam, and is segmented in 146 strips with 180 µm pitch. The readout is based on the ESA-ABACUS frontend board, developed to house six 24-channel ASICs able to discriminate particle signal pulses in a wide charge range (4-150 fC), with a maximum dead time of about 10 ns. The digital pulses produced by the discriminator are acquired by 3 Kintex7 FPGA boards implementing pulse counters for each channel. Alternatively, the digital pulses of 8 channels are acquired by the CERN picoTDC evaluation board providing the additional time measurements in time bins of 3 ps.

The measurements performed with protons and carbon ion clinical beams at CNAO (Pavia, fig.1) result in beam projections (fig.2) with a FWHM in agreement with measurements performed with gafchromic films. The proton counting efficiency shows a dependence on the beam energy because of geometric and pile-up effects (fig.3), whereas an efficiency above 90 % with lower energy dependence is found for carbon ions. Furthermore, the time measurements with the TDC allowed for the study of the difference of crossing times of consecutive particles in one strip (fig.4) which shows a time structure compatible with the radio-frequency period of the synchrotron.

Speaker: Emanuele Maria Data (Università di Torino / INFN)

DATA_pisa_meeting_2024.pdf

Wednesday, 29 May

Calorimetry - Oral session

Conveners: Dr Ana Correia (CERN), imad laktineh (ipnl)

154 Test-beam measurements of instrumented sensor planes for a higly compact and granular electromagnetic calorimeter

The LUXE experiment is designed to explore the strong-field QED regime in interactions of high-energy electrons from the European XFEL with an intense laser field. One of the crucial aims of this experiment is to measure the production of electron-positron pairs as a function of the laser field strength, where non-perturbative effects are expected to kick in above the Schwinger limit. For the measurements of positron energy and multiplicity spectra, a tracker and an electromagnetic calorimeter are foreseen. Since the expected number of positrons varies over five orders of magnitude, and has to be measured over a widely spread low-energy background, the calorimeter must be compact and finely segmented. The concept of a sandwich calorimeter made of tungsten absorber plates interspersed with thin sensor planes is developed. The sensor planes comprise a silicon pad sensor, flexible Kapton printed circuit planes for bias voltage supply and signal transport to the sensor edge, all embedded in a carbon fibre support. The thickness of a sensor plane is less than 1 mm. A dedicated readout is developed comprising front-end ASICs in 130 nm technology and FPGAs to orchestrate the ASICs and perform data pre-processing. As an alternative, GaAs are considered with integrated readout strips on the sensor. Prototypes of both sensor planes are studied in an electron beam of 5 GeV. Results will be presented on the homogeneity of the response, edge effects and cross talk between channels.

Speaker: Dawid Pietruch (AGH University of Krakow)

Pisa_meeting_LUXE.pdf

155 Scintillating sampling ECAL technology for the LHCb PicoCal

The aim of the LHCb Upgrade II is to operate at a luminosity of up to 1.5 x 10$^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ to collect a data set of 300 fb$^{-1}$. The required substantial modifications of the current LHCb electromagnetic calorimeter due to high radiation doses in the central region and increased particle densities are referred to as PicoCal. An enhancement of the ECAL already during LS3 will reduce the occupancy and mitigate substantial ageing effects in the central region after Run 3.

Several scintillating sampling ECAL technologies are currently being investigated in an ongoing R&D campaign: Spaghetti Calorimeter (SpaCal) with garnet scintillating crystals and tungsten absorber, SpaCal with scintillating plastic fibres and tungsten or lead absorber, and Shashlik with polystyrene tiles, lead absorber and fast WLS fibres.

Timing capabilities with tens of picoseconds precision for neutral electromagnetic particles and increased granularity with denser absorber in the central region are needed for pile-up mitigation. Time resolutions of better than 20 ps at high energy were observed in test beam measurements of prototype SpaCal and Shashlik modules. Energy resolutions with sampling contributions of about 10%/sqrt(E) in line with the requirements were measured. The presentation will also cover results from detailed simulations to optimise the design and physics performance of the PicoCal.

Speaker: Sergei Kholodenko (INFN - Pisa)

Kholodenko_PM2024_ECAL_U2.pdf

156 The Mu2e crystal and SiPM calorimeter

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for the charged-lepton flavour violating conversion of negative muons into electrons in the coulomb field of an Al nucleus, planning to reach a single event sensitivity of about 3E−17, four orders of magnitude beyond the current best limit.

The conversion electron has a monoenergetic signature at ~105 MeV and is identified by a high-resolution straw tracker and an electromagnetic calorimeter (EMC). The EMC is composed of 1348 pure CsI crystals, each one read by two custom SiPMs, arranged in two annular disks. It should achieve ~10% energy resolution and 500 ps timing resolution for 100 MeV electrons while maintaining high levels of reliability in a harsh operating environment with high vacuum, 1 T B-field and radiation exposures up to 100 krad and 10^12 n_1MeVeq/cm^2.

The calorimeter technological choice and the design of the custom electronics, cooling and mechanical systems were validated through an electron beam test on a large-scale prototype (Module-0) and extensive test campaigns that characterised and verified the performance of crystals, photodetectors, analogue and digital electronics. This included hardware stress tests and irradiation campaigns with neutrons, protons, and photons. A series of vertical slice tests with the final electronics was carried out on the Module-0 at LNF along with implementation and validation of the relevant calibration procedures.

The production phase of all calorimeter components is completed apart for the digital electronics that is still underway. The two disks have been fully assembled, with a full integration and test of all the analogic sensors and electronics. We are now progressing on the insertion of the digital electronics. We will summarise the construction and assembly phases, the QC and the calibration tests performed in the assembly area as well as the installation and commissioning plans of the final disks in the Mu2e hall.

Speaker: Simona Giovannella (INFN - LNF)

Giovannella_16PisaMeeting.pdf

157 Exposing a dual-readout fibre calorimeter to beams of electrons.

We will present the testing of a prototype dual-readout calorimeter employing brass capillary tubes surrounding scintillating and clear plastic optical fibers. Particle beams with energies ranging from 10 to 100 GeV, generated by the CERN SPS, were utilized for experimental testing. The detector's performance was characterized in terms of linearity, energy resolution, and lateral granularity. The obtained experimental results are compared with predictions from a Geant4-based simulation. These results confirm the tube-based mechanical design and SiPM readout as a promising configuration for future developments. The talk will conclude by discussing the outlook of fiber-based capillary tube technology for dual readout in upcoming e+e- colliders.

Speaker: Andrea Pareti (Università di Pavia / INFN)

DRCalo_PisaMeeting_AndreaPareti.pdf

158 CALICE scintillator-SiPM calorimeter prototypes: R&D highlights and beamtest campaigns

• Among various technical options of high granularity calorimetry being explored within the CALICE collaboration, two technological prototypes based on the scintillator option have  been developed to address major challenges of system integration, including an electromagnetic calorimeter prototype (namely CALICE ScW-ECAL) and a hadron calorimeter prototype (namely CALICE CEPC-AHCAL). The ScW-ECAL prototype is finely segmented with 6700 readout channels in total and consists of 32 longitudinal layers, each with scintillator strips ($\mathrm{ 45\times5\times2~mm^3}$) and a copper-tungsten plate in a transverse size of $\mathrm{22\times22~cm^2}$. The AHCAL prototype has been developed with totally 12960 readout channels in 40 longitudinal layers. Each layer is instrumented with an array of $18\times18$ scintillator tiles ($\mathrm{ 40\times40\times3~mm^3}$) and an iron plate of $\mathrm{72\times72~cm^2}$. Both two prototypes are based on the silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) readout scheme and compact front-end electronics chips have been fully integrated onto the readout boards, where each scintillator strip/tile is directly coupled with a SiPM individually (i.e. the "SiPM-on-Tile" design developed within the CALICE collaboration).

• Successful beamtest campaigns were successfully finished for the both prototypes at CERN PS as well as SPS beamlines during 2022 and 2023. Decent statistics of data samples were collected with high-energy beam particles in the momentum range of 1-350 GeV and . This contribution will present prototype developments and results of key performance evaluated based on the beamtest data. Highlights of ongoing studies of electromagnetic and hadronic shower properties will also be included.

Speaker: Yong Liu (Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS)

2024_0529_CALICE_Scintillator_Calorimeters_RnD_Highlights.pdf

159 ALLEGRO FCC-ee detector concept & Noble-liquid calorimetry

ALLEGRO is a proposed FCC-ee general-purpose detector concept with a noble-liquid electromagnetic calorimeter as a central feature. Calorimetry based on liquefied noble gases is a well proven technology that has been successfully applied in numerous high-energy physics experiments. Noble liquid calorimeters provide excellent energy resolution, linearity, stability, uniformity and timing properties at a reasonable cost. These attributes make it a strong candidate for future particle physics experiments - in both hadron and lepton colliders. By using multi-layer PCB's as read-out electrodes, we can build a calorimeter with almost arbitrarily high granularity. This in turn allows for four-dimensional imaging, machine learning algorithms and particle-flow reconstruction to be fully exploited. In this talk we give an overview to the ALLEGRO concept and present the ongoing R&D work for adapting noble liquid sampling calorimetry to an electromagnetic calorimeter of a lepton collider experiment. In addition to simulation studies and expected performance, we will show results on signal extraction and noise mitigation studies made with readout electrode prototypes and compare the measurements to simulations, as well as discuss test results of absorber prototypes. In addition we will present progress of the mechanical design project, cryostat development and status of the full test-beam prototype module development of the barrel ECAL.

Speaker: Juska Pekkanen (University of Helsinki)

allegro_pm2024_juska_v2.pdf

160 Developing an alternative calorimeter solution for the future Muon Collider: the Crilin design

The Crilin calorimeter instantiates a semi-homogeneous calorimetric system incorporating Lead Fluoride (PbF2) crystals interfaced with surface-mounted UV-extended Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs). This innovative design is proposed as the electromagnetic calorimeter for the prospective Muon Collider. Considering the need to discriminate signal particles from background noise and address substructures critical for jet identification, a high level of granularity is deemed necessary.
Considering the expected substantial occupancy resulting from beam-induced backgrounds, with simulations indicating a photon flux of average energy of 1.7 MeV and approximately 4.5 MHz/cm2 fluence, prioritizing time-of-arrival measurements within the calorimeter becomes essential. This temporal information could be instrumental in associating clusters with their respective interaction vertices. Moreover, the calorimeter's energy resolution assumes pivotal importance in accurately determining the kinematic properties of jets.

Operation within a challenging radiation environment is a crucial consideration, with exposure levels reaching 1 Mrad/year total ionizing dose (TID) and a neutron fluence equivalent to 10^14 neutrons 1 MeV/cm^2/year. Our exhaustive radiation hardness studies on both crystals and SiPMs confirm the system's capability to function effectively under these extreme conditions, encompassing both dose and neutron fluences.

A prototype (Proto-1), consisting of two layers of 3x3 PbF2 crystals each, underwent testing in 2023 using 450 MeV electrons at the LNF Beam Test Facility and 40-150 GeV electrons at CERN H2. The achievement of a timing resolution of less than 50 ps for energy deposits exceeding 1 GeV underscores the robustness of the system. A comprehensive overview of the prototype's mechanics and electronics, along with the outcomes of the test beams, is presented for consideration.
We are currently in the process of constructing a larger prototype featuring a 5x5 crystal matrix and comprising 5 layers. The realization is scheduled for completion in 2023, with testing set to commence in the summer of 2025.

Speaker: Elisa Di Meco (INFN - LNF)

DiMeco_Biodola_2024_vfinal.pdf

Calorimetry - Poster session

This session will be on display on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning
Link to the contributions

161 Simlation and test beam results of a capillary tube, dual-reaout calorimeter

The precision measurements planned at future lepton colliders require excellent energy resolution especially in multi-jet events to successfully separate Z, W, and Higgs decays. Especially in hadronic decays, the resolution is largely limited by event-to-event fluctuations in the shower development. By compensating for these fluctuations, it is possible to improve the energy resolution drastically. Furthermore, the new approach of Particle Flow, which requires a highly granular calorimeter, aims to improve the overall detector performance including energy resolution.
Over the past years the dual-readout method, which exploits complementary information from Scintillation and Cherenkov channels, has emerged as candidate to fulfil these requirements. While the dual-readout approach has been tested experimentally quite extensively, this type of calorimeter has never been used in a collider setting. In recent years dedicated studies in simulation as well as test beam prototypes have investigated various detector geometries based on a fibre dual-readout calorimeter. One variation of the geometry, relying on capillary tubes, promises easy assembly with excellent geometrical accuracy at a moderate cost. In this talk we present the latest results from simulation of this newest prototype as well as compare this to recent test beam results. The simulation is also used to investigate the performance with a larger prototype fit for hadronic shower containment and the full "4π" detector geometry using the capillary tube design.

Speaker: Andreas Loeschcke Centeno (University of Sussex)

picture-pisa24_loeschcke_centeno_dual_readout_calorimetry.jpg

poster-pisa24_loeschcke_centeno_dual_readout_calorimetry.pdf

video-pisa24_loeschcke_centeno_dual_readout_calorimetry.mp4

162 Calibration System of the ATLAS Tile Calorimeter and its Upgrade for HL-LHC

The Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) is a sampling hadronic calorimeter covering the central region of the ATLAS experiment, with steel as absorber and plastic scintillators as active medium. The scintillators are read-out by the wavelength shifting fibres coupled to the photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The analogue signals from the PMTs are amplified, shaped, digitized by sampling the signal every 25 ns and stored on detector until a trigger decision is received. The TileCal front-end electronics reads out the signals produced by about 10000 channels measuring energies ranging from about 30 MeV to about 2 TeV. Each stage of the signal production from scintillation light to the signal reconstruction is monitored and calibrated. This contribution focuses on the TileCal calibration system, which includes Cesium radioactive source, laser, charge injection elements and an integrator-based readout system. It will also discuss the upgrade of the current laser system for the high luminosity (HL)-LHC. A summary of the latest calibration results during LHC Run-3 and a preliminary performance study of the new components of the laser system will be presented.

Speaker: Viola Floris (Università di Pisa / INFN)

Photo_VFloris.png

Poster_VFloris_PM2024.pdf

163 The OREO (ORiented calOrimeter) project

Inorganic scintillators are widely used to build compact and high energy
resolution homogeneous electromagnetic calorimeters. In recent years, several
studies have been performed on the fact that their crystalline nature can heavily
affect the Bremsstrahlung and Pair Production mechanisms. In fact, experimen-
tal tests have shown that when the incident beam is aligned with the crystal axes
within some tenths of a degree, the electromagnetic shower development is ac-
celerated. The ORiEnted calOrimeter (OREO) project intends to assemble and
test an electromagnetic calorimeter prototype based on oriented crystals. The
calorimeter will consist of a 3×3 matrix of 5 radiation length oriented PWO-UF
(Ultra-Fast) crystals readout by SiPMs, followed by non oriented crystals. The
most challenging aspect of the design is to keep the crystals aligned when ar-
ranged in a matrix structure. This contribution will present the results obtained
with a 3 × 1 and a 2 × 2 matrix of PWO-UF oriented crystals during the Oreo
2023 beamtests with 6-15 GeV/c electrons on the T9 beamline at the CERN
PS and with 20-150 GeV/c electrons on the H2 beamline at the CERN SPS.
The results demonstrate for the first time ever the possibility to align a layer of
crystals along the same crystallographic direction, opening a new technological
path towards the development of a highly compact calorimeter. The contri-
bution will explore also the particle identification capability of such a system:
since the nuclear interaction length is unaffected by the lattice orientation, the
calorimeter oriented crystal layer is an instrument that is sensitive to photons
and blind to hadrons. These features make such a calorimeter of interest for
high energy physics experiments (forward calorimeter in colliders such as in
the CERN HIKE-KLEVER experiment, fixed target experiments) but also for
space-borne γ ray telescopes.

Speaker: Alessia Selmi (Università degli Studi dell'Insubria)

picture_selmiPM24.jpg

Poster_SelmiPM24.pdf

164 The POKERINO prototype

The POKER (POsitron resonant annihilation into dark mattER) project aims to perform a missing-energy measurement employing a positron beam impinging on an active thick target. The beam interaction with the target could produce feebly interacting massive particles, exiting from the detector and carrying away a significant fraction of the primary positron energy. The crucial element of the POKER project is a high-resolution PbWO$_4$ electromagnetic calorimeter used as the active thick target. POKERINO is a prototype of this new high-resolution electromagnetic calorimeter. It is a 3x3 matrix of PbWO$_4$ crystals, each with dimensions 2x2x25~cm$^3$; four SiPMs, directly glued to one of the two 2x2~cm$^2$ crystal faces, acquire the scintillation light from each crystal. The nine crystals are embedded in a copper structure, connected to an external, water-based cooling system, and inserted in a black, light-tight box. After the commissioning with cosmic rays, the POKERINO response to high-energy particles was measured at the H8 beamline of the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at CERN. This facility can provide electron, positron, muon or hadron beams with energies ranging from 10 GeV to over 100 GeV, thus allowing investigation of the POKERINO's response to various particle beams over a wide energy range. In particular, the energy resolution and linearity of the detector were studied. In my contribution, I will discuss the results obtained during the test beam of POKERINO at CERN, highlighting how this study influenced the design of the final calorimeter and the future perspective of the POKER project.

Speaker: Pietro Bisio (INFN - Genova)

picture_PM2024_PietroBisio.jpg

poster_PM2024_PietroBisio.pdf

165 Measurement of scintillation from proportional electron multiplication in liquid xenon using a needle

While many current world-leading experiments utilise dual-phase noble element time projection chambers (TPC) to perform direct dark matter searches, a potential alternative that may be simpler and easier to scale-up is a single-phase TPC. However, achieving proportional scintillation and charge amplification directly in the liquid is challenging due to the electric fields required, but could enable similar background discrimination and event localisation capabilities as current experiments. Methods to achieve such amplification have been demonstrated using thin wires and micro pattern detector structures, but how they might be incorporated into an experiment remains elusive. We present a new approach to this challenge, with the first results with a novel method for charge amplification in liquid xenon that could be scaled to the size required for a direct dark matter search experiment. A thin needle-like electrode was used to provide a sufficiently high electric field in a liquid xenon time projection chamber test bench, read-out by two PMTs. The experimental set-up will be presented, along with measurements of the proportional scintillation in the liquid phase at several voltages. The next stage of the project will also be outlined, where the electrodes are incorporated into a multi-anode structure, like that employed by the spherical proportional counter used by NEWS-G, and how this could be implemented in a single-phase xenon detector like XMASS-I.

Speaker: Patrick Knights (University of Birmingham)

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poster-knights-lxe.pdf

166 Fermilab Program for Organic Scintillator

Fermilab is one of the largest producers of organic scintillator in the world. Its scintillator has been used in a wide variety of applications including archeology, volcanology, mining exploration, agriculture, national security, as well as more traditional applications in HEP and Astro-particle physics. We will survey these applications. We will describe the scintillator extrusion facility and injection molding facility. We will discuss ongoing and near-term future projects for these facilities, including production of scintillating tiles for the CMS HGCAL HL-LHC upgrade. Finally, we will present future plans for preparing new scintillating materials tailored for specific applications. We will focus on developments in neutron-sensitive scintillator and in specialty scintillator for dual readout calorimetry.

Speaker: Jim Freeman (Fermilab)

Elba Poster 2024.pdf

167 Particle identification in high-granularity 3D calorimeters for space-borne applications

High granularity 3D calorimeters offer the potential to precisely reconstruct the 3D topology of electromagnetic and hadronic showers originating from isotropic sources. This distinctive capability creates the opportunity for applying reconstruction and analysis methods that could yield additional information compared to those based on the traditional layer-by-layer energy deposit analysis common in particle and astroparticle physics experiments utilizing calorimeters with layer segmentation.

In this study, we present a strategy for analyzing the energy deposit in a crystal array calorimeter, utilizing the three-dimensional parametrization of both longitudinal and transversal shapes of showers to implement likelihood tests on single events. This test has the potential to serve as a robust tool for discriminating signals from electrons and positrons against those from hadronic particles—an essential feature expected by calorimeters in cosmic-ray measurements in space. Prospects for employment of artificial intelligence algorithm for the analysis of the shower footprint image in the crystal array will also be presented.

While this analysis was specifically developed using the High Energy cosmic Radiation Detector (HERD) calorimeter as a case study, its applicability may extend to any high granularity, homogeneous, isotropic calorimeter employed in particle physics experiments.

Speaker: Claudio Brugnoni (INFN - Perugia)

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poster-Brugnoni-PM24.pdf

168 Design and assembling status of the Mu2e electromagnetic calorimeter mechanical structures

The “muon-to-electron conversion” (Mu2e) experiment at Fermilab will search for the Charged Lepton Flavour Violating neutrino-less coherent conversion of a muon into an electron in the field of an aluminum nucleus. The observation of this process would be the unambiguous evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model. The detector has been designed as a state-of-the-art crystal calorimeter and employs 1348 pure Cesium Iodide (CsI) crystals readout by UV-extended silicon photosensors and fast front-end and digitization electronics. A design consisting of two identical annular matrices (named “disks”) positioned at the relative distance of 70 cm, downstream the aluminum target along the muon beamline, satisfies the Mu2e physics requirements.
The hostile Mu2e operational conditions, in terms of radiation levels (total ionizing dose of 12 krad and a neutron fluence of 5×10¹⁰ n/cm2 @ 1 MeVeq (Si)/y), magnetic field intensity (1 T) and vacuum level (10⁻⁴ Torr) have posed tight constraints on the design of the detector mechanical structures and materials choice. The support structure of the two 674 crystal matrices employs two aluminum hollow rings and parts made of open-cell vacuum-compatible carbon fiber. The photosensors and service front-end electronics for each crystal are assembled in a unique mechanical unit inserted in a machined copper holder. The 674 units are supported by a machined plate made of vacuum-compatible plastic material. The plate also integrates the cooling system made of a network of copper lines flowing a low temperature radiation-hard fluid and placed in thermal contact with the copper holders. The data acquisition electronics is hosted in aluminum custom crates positioned on the external lateral surface of the two disks. The crates also integrate the electronics cooling system.
In this poster we will review the constraints on the calorimeter mechanical structures, the technological choices, and the status of assembling at Fermilab.

Speaker: Mr Daniele Pasciuto (INFN - Roma 1)

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Poster-DanielePasciuto-Design and assembling status of the Mu2e electromagnetic calorimeter mechanical structures.pdf

169 The irradiation tests of Silicon pad sensors for the new ALICE FoCal detector at LHC

The ALICE Collaboration is planning to install a new forward calorimeter (FoCal) as a detector upgrade to the ALICE experiment at LHC during the next long shutdown from 2027 to 2029. The FoCal consists of a Si+W electromagnetic component with longitudinal segmentation (FoCal-E) and a conventional scintillating fiber hadronic component (FoCal-H). It will cover the pseudorapidity interval of 3.4 < η < 5.8 at a place of 7 meters in the forward region seen from the interaction point. 22 FoCal-E modules will be placed around the LHC beam pipe to realize the FoCal-E component and each module is composed of 20 low-granularity layers with silicon pad sensors and 2 high-granularity layers with silicon pixel sensors. The silicon pad sensor which can take one from a 6-inch p-substrate wafer is a key component to bring a performance of FoCal into full play, and it has 72 main cells of 1cm x 1cm and 2 calibration cells of 3mm x 3mm each. In order to estimate a change of characteristics of silicon pad sensors in long-term operation in the ALICE cavern, we carried out the irradiation tests using the neutron beam at Riken RANS in 2022 and 2023, and some silicon pad sensors were irradiated within range from 1 x 10^12 to 3 x 10^14 neutron equivalent / cm^2 according to a beam intensity and a distance from the target. After that, we could have opportunities of beam tests of the irradiated silicon pad sensors at the CERN PS complex and Tohoku Univ. ELPH in 2023 and 2024, respectively, and we could get the information on a leakage current including an annealing effect, the temperature dependence and the MIPs data measurement. In this meeting, detailed results of the irradiation tests and beam tests will be presented.

Speaker: Motoi Inaba (Tsukuba University of Technology)

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Poster_PISA2024_Motoi_INABA.pdf

170 The SHADOWS calorimeter

The SHADOWS experiment, proposed for the 400 GeV/c proton beam at CERN SPS, is dedicated to explore feebly interacting particles (FIPs) generated during proton interactions. This contribution specifically focuses on advancements related to the electromagnetic calorimeter of SHADOWS. In addressing the challenge of reconstructing particles that decay into photons, we present a conceptual design study of a plastic scintillator-based calorimeter designed to provide energy and direction measurements. The pointing capability is essential for FIP detection and has been validated through GEANT4 simulations.
We report on activities related to calorimeter and module design, the scintillator-SiPM coupling, the readout concept, prototyping, and test beam measurements.

Speaker: Claudia Caterina Delogu (Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz)

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poster-delogu-PM24.pdf

video-delogu-PM24.mp4

171 Design and optimization of a MPGD-based HCAL for a future experiment at Muon Collider

In the context of the European strategy for particle physics, a multi-Tev muon collider has been proposed as a powerful tool to investigate the Standard Model with unprecedented precision, after the full exploitation of the High-Luminosity LHC. Being muons not stable particles, the main foreseen challenge is to distinguish collisions from the background radiation induced by decaying muons in the beam. High granularity, excellent energy resolution and precise timing are therefore the fundamental aspects of a detector at a muon collider.
In this context, an innovative hadronic calorimeter (HCAL), based on Micro Pattern Gas Detectors (MPGD) as active layers, has been designed. MPGDs represent the ideal technology, featuring high rate capability (up to 10 MHz/cm2), spatial and good time resolution, good response uniformity (30%). In particular resistive MPGDs, such as resistive Micromegas and microRWELL, demonstrate excellent results for spatial resolution, operational stability (discharge quenching) and detector uniformity, which make them ideally suited for calorimetry. Moreover, gaseous detectors have the advantage of being radiation hard and allow for high granularity (1x1 cm2 cell size).
Being the first time that such calorimeter design is proposed, dedicated studies are needed to assess and optimize the performance, as well as the development of medium scale prototypes for performance measurements. In particular, the response of HCAL to the incoming particles is studied and presented in this contribution with Monte Carlo simulations performed using GEANT4. Preliminary test on small detector prototypes with minimum ionizing particles at CERN SPS in order to measure the efficiency, cluster size, hit multiplicity and spatial resolution are also shown, as well as preliminary results of a hcal cell prototype made of 8 layers (~ 1 𝝺) of alternating stainless steel and MPGD detectors tested with pions beam of energy ranging between 2 to 11 GeV.

Speaker: Antonello Pellecchia (INFN - Bari)

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poster-mpgd-hcal.pdf

172 Development of a novel high granularity crystal electromagnetic calorimeter for future lepton collider experiments.

Following the demand for precise measurements of the Higgs, Z/W bosons and the top quark, future lepton colliders, e.g. the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC), are required to meet stringent requirements on the calorimetry systems to achieve unprecedented jet energy resolutions. As part of CEPC’s “4th detector concept”, a novel high-granularity crystal electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) has been proposed, with an optimal EM resolution of $2-3~\%/\sqrt{E(GeV)}$ and sufficiently low detection limit of photons. By utilising the Particle Flow Approach (PFA) with other optimised sub-detectors, this new ECAL design concept is expected to improve the Boson Mass Resolution (BMR) from 4% in the CEPC CDR to 3% level.

Significant R&D efforts have been undertaken in the design of this crystal ECAL. Geant4 full simulations have been carried out to assess the impact of light yield and time response of the crystal. Laboratory measurements with characterisations of crystal, silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs) and readout electronics have been conducted, providing validation of the simulations and evidence on the hardware feasibility. Besides, a small-scale crystal module has been developed and tested under beam conditions for performance studies and system-level investigations.

Moreover, a dedicated particle flow algorithm is under development in parallel to solve the major challenges from shower overlapping and ambiguity of pattern recognitions, which are introduced from the layout of orthogonally arranged crystal bars.

This report introduces the design of the novel high-granularity crystal ECAL, outlines its physics potential, and presents the latest progress on module-level tests and PFA performance studies.

Speaker: Dr Fangyi Guo (Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS)

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poster-CrystalECAL_PM2024v2.pdf

173 Installation and commissioning of the Electromagnetic Calorimeter in the HADES experiment

The Electromagnetic Calorimeter (ECAL) serves as a subdetector for the HADES (High Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer) experiment, located at the FAIR-GSI in Darmstadt, Germany. The HADES experiment aims to study the QCD phase diagram at high baryonic densities and low temperatures, primarily via the di-lepton decay of vector mesons. The primary function of the ECAL is to measure the energy of γ-quanta. The detector’s implementation allows for the study of the production of neutral mesons, hyperons and improves electron-to-hadron separation in fixed-target nuclear reactions at 1-4 AGeV beam energies. The ECAL setup consists of six sectors, each with 163 modules, and utilizes Cherenkov light detection via lead-glass prisms and photomultiplier tubes (PMTs).

The presentation focuses on the status of the ECAL detector before forthcoming beam time in 2024. The key milestones will be described, including the successful installation and commissioning of the final setup with all six sectors, comprehensive maintenance of the entire detector, and precise gain settings of the PMTs using cosmic muon measurements. This gain settings procedure ensures the proper dynamic range settings and allows for preliminary energy calibration.

Speaker: Mr Antonín Opíchal (Nuclear Physics Institute CAS)

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Poster_ECAL_Opichal_oblong.pdf

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Poster_Opichal_ECAL.pdf

174 Development of a “Maximum Information” Crystal Calorimeter for future Higgs Factories

While the Large Hadron Collider and its detectors are preparing for major upgrades in view of the high luminosity frontier, the high energy physics international community has started to look beyond the LHC. As recognized by the 2020 European Strategy Particle Physics Update, the pursuit of an electron-positron collider is one of the top priorities to study in detail the properties of the Higgs boson and thus a coordinated R&D effort to develop the next generation of detectors has started.
In this context, a new detector concept, which aims at maximizing the information collected by an electromagnetic (EM) calorimeter section based on homogeneous crystals with state-of-the-art energy resolution, high granularity and embedding dual-readout capabilities (simultaneous measurement of Cherenkov and scintillation light produced in the crystal) has recently been proposed [1].
In this contribution we will present the conceptual design of such a “Maximum Information Crystal Calorimeter” (MAXICC), its performance in reconstructing multi-jet events [2] and first results from the ongoing R&D to identify the optimal crystal, filter and SiPM candidates through laboratory measurements and beam tests.

Speaker: Giulia Terragni (CERN / TU Wien)

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poster-“Maximum-Information”-Crystal-Calorimeter-for-future-Higgs-Factories.pdf

175 Feasibility studies of LAPPD as a timing layer for the Upgrade-2 of LHCb calorimeter

The Upgrade-2 of the LHCb experiment aims to operate with an instantaneous luminosity a factor seven higher than the current one to reach ultimate precision in several domains of its physics program. This objective challenges the development of subdetectors able to cope with the foreseen high-occupancy regime.
The measurement of the time of hits in the detector will be a crucial new feature. Simulation studies show that a resolution between 10 and 20 ps is essential to exploit the time separation of the primary proton-proton collisions and mitigate the pileup.

The "Large Area Picosecond Photo Detector" technology (LAPPD) is a candidate to constitute a timing layer placed between the front and back sections of the electromagnetic calorimeter of LHCb Upgrade-2 (PicoCAL). The LAPPD is the largest microchannel-plate photomultiplier ever built, all made with inexpensive materials. The high charged-particle multiplicity at shower maximum permits efficient operations even without the photocathode, avoiding the issues related to its ageing. This presentation reports the status of the art of the ongoing R&D campaign. Four models have been characterized so far: the Gen-I with stripline readout and the Gen-II with external pixelated readout, both with either 10- or 20-$\mu$m pore size. A time resolution close to the target was measured with electrons from 1 to 5.8 GeV at DESY and from 20 to 100 GeV at SPS. The radiation hardness of the MCP tiles was verified up to $10^{16}$ protons/$\rm cm^2$ at IRRAD and $300~\mathrm{C/cm^2}$ with a UV lamp in the laboratory. The performances at high rates were tested with a laser ($\lambda = 405~\rm nm$). They will be crucial for the upcoming development steps.
As a spin-off of the project, the concept of a new radiation-resistant photocathode was proposed. Its design will be described, including details on the construction and operation of prototypes.

Speaker: Mikhail Barnyakov (INFN - Bologna)

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poster-MBarnyakov.pdf

176 Upgrade of ATLAS Hadronic Tile Calorimeter for the High Luminosity LHC

The Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) is a sampling hadronic calorimeter covering the central region of the ATLAS experiment, with steel as absorber and plastic scintillators as active medium. The High-Luminosity phase of LHC, delivering five times the LHC nominal instantaneous luminosity, is expected to begin in 2029. TileCal will require new electronics to meet the requirements of a 1 MHz trigger, higher ambient radiation, and to ensure better performance under high pile-up conditions. Both the on- and off-detector TileCal electronics will be replaced during the shutdown of 2026-2028. PMT signals from every TileCal cell will be digitized and sent directly to the back-end electronics, where the signals are reconstructed, stored, and sent to the first level of trigger at a rate of 40 MHz. This will provide better precision of the calorimeter signals used by the trigger system and will allow the development of more complex trigger algorithms. The modular front-end electronics feature radiation-tolerant commercial off-the-shelf components and redundant design to minimize single points of failure. The timing, control and communication interface with the off-detector electronics is implemented with modern Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and high speed fibre optic links running up to 9.6 Gb/s. The TileCal upgrade program has included extensive R&D and test beam studies. A Demonstrator module with reverse compatibility with the existing system was inserted in ATLAS in August 2019 for testing in actual detector conditions. The ongoing developments for on- and off-detector systems, together with expected performance characteristics and results of test-beam campaigns with the electronics prototypes will be discussed.

Speaker: David Calvet (Laboratoire de Physique de Clermont Auvergne)

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Poster-IS.pdf

177 An Imaging Calorimeter prototype with WLS fibers and LYSO crystal

An imaging calorimeter prototype for the new generation of satellite experiments sensitive to sub-GeV photons is proposed. The detector is composed of a thin scintillator crystal of LYSO coupled with two crossed planes of wavelength shifting fibers (WLS) on its top and bottom faces, readout by Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs). Ionizing particles and absorbed gamma rays will leave energy deposits in the crystal and scintillation light will be isotropically produced. WLS fibers subtended by the acceptance cone corresponding to total internal reflection angle will collect the light that will be delivered to SiPM arrays at their ends. Crossed fiber planes allow evaluation of the position of the interaction point in the scintillator crystal. A custom front-end board hosting four PETIROC 2A ASICs was designed in INFN Bari for reading-out the signals from SiPMs.

WLS fibers are suitable for airborne and satellite-borne detectors due to their light weight, flexibility, and low cost. In addition, using SiPMs instead of common photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) for the read-out of scintillation light will reduce the power consumption. A first module prototype was assembled and tested in our laboratories with a Sr-90 radioactive source and cosmic-ray muons and at the CERN PS and SPS facilities with beams of pions and nuclei. Preliminary results will be presented in this contribution.

Speaker: Leonarda Lorusso (INFN - Bari)

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poster_LeonardaLorusso.pdf

178 A liquid hydrogen target for the calibration of the MEG-II LXe calorimeter

The MEG experiment has set the world’s most stringent limit of 4.2 $\times$ 10$^{-13}$ (90% C.L.) on the branching ratio of the charged lepton flavour violating decay mu+->e+ gamma at the Swiss intense continuous surface muon beam facility, the Paul Scherrer Institute. After an intense upgrade program, the MEG-II experiment started data taking in 2021. To achieve an order of magnitude sensitivity improvement with respect to MEG, the liquid XEnon Calorimeter (XEC) was upgraded to a 1000L liquid xenon C-shaped tank equipped with PMTs and SiPMs to collect the Vacuum UltraViolet scintillation light from the 52.8 MeV signal gamma.

Among the various calibration methods of the LXe calorimeter, we developed one that allows to extract the detector performance at an energy close to the signal gamma's. To do so, a beam of negative pions is sent towards a liquid hydrogen target in order to produce neutral pions via the charge exchange reaction $\pi^−$ + p → $\pi^0$ + n. Neutral pions decay into a pair of gammas with energies following a flat spectrum between 54.9 MeV and 82.9 MeV in the lab frame. The 54.9 MeV gammas are selected by requiring a back-to-back topology of the gammas using an auxiliary detector facing the XEC. This gamma source is used to extract the energy, position and timing resolutions of the detector. The liquid hydrogen (LH$_2$) target has stringent requirements in order to match MEG-II design, reach temperatures below 20K and allow fast liquefaction. The latest design of the liquid hydrogen target, its construction and its performances are presented here.

Speaker: Hicham Benmansour (Università di Pisa / INFN)

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poster_Elba2024_Hicham.pdf

179 ATLAS ZDC for Run 3 and Run 4

The ATLAS Zero Degree Calorimeters (ZDCs) detect neutral particles emitted at very forward rapidities in nuclear collisions at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). During Runs 1 and 2 of the ATLAS experiment, the ZDCs have been crucial for identifying spectator neutrons in lead-lead collisions and in selecting ultraperipheral collisions.

The ZDCs consist of modules of sampling hadronic calorimeters made up of alternating tungsten-fused silica rod layers that act as Cherenkov radiators. They have been upgraded for LHC Run 3 with new fused silica rods for better radiation hardness, along with low-attenuation air-core cables and new readout electronics based on the LUCROD card from ATLAS's LUCID detector. The electronic update facilitated a new all-digital triggering mechanism for improved event selections.

Also for Run 3, a new Reaction Plane Detector (RPD) was implemented. The RPD measures nuclear collision reaction planes by analyzing transverse shower profiles from spectator neutrons in the ZDC. Equipped with radiation-hard fused silica fibers of varying lengths in y direction and grouped in x direction, the 16 channels of RPD can image multi-neutron showers using a Convolutional Neural Network to optimize angular sensitivity.

The LHC absorber region will be completely rebuilt for the High Luminosity (HL) LHC, which will provide first beams in LHC Run 4. The ATLAS and CMS ZDC groups have proposed a joint project to build a next-generation HL-ZDC that will include an Electromagnetic (EM) and Hadronic section, as well as an RPD, all enclosed in a monolithic mechanical design that should simplify installation and thus reduce radiation exposure.

This talk will review the performance of the ATLAS ZDC in the first year of Run 3, and provide an outlook of the HL-ZDC detector, with particular attention to the upgraded EM section.

Speaker: Yftach Moyal (Ben Gurion University)

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poster-ATLAS_ZDC_Run3_Run4.pdf

180 Study of SiPMs for calorimetry applications in the DUNE Near Detector complex

DUNE experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is mainly devoted in study of neutrino mass ordering and CP symmetry violation in the leptonic sector. The experiment comprises three main components: a high-intensity neutrino source, a massive Far Detector situated 1.5km underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, about 1300km far from neutrino source, and a composite Near Detector installed just downstream of neutrino source. The KLOE experiment lead-scintillating fiber electromagnetic calorimeter is expected to be reused in the Near Detector. The study here presented aims to evaluate the possibility of replacing the Photomultiplier Tubes (PMT) used for reading the KLOE calorimeter with Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM). To compare both readout approaches, signals induced by cosmic rays have been collected on one side of a block of the KLOE calorimeter by SiPM arrays, and on the opposite one by conventional PMTs. Efficiency, stability, and timing resolution of SiPMs have been studied and compared with similar PMTs performances.

Speaker: Marco Panareo (INFN - Lecce)

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SiPM_DUNE.pdf

Solid State Detectors - Poster session

This session will be on display on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning
Link to the contributions

Thursday, 30 May

Low Temperature, Quantum and Emerging Technologies - Oral session

Conveners: Claudio Gatti (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Loredana gastaldo (Kirchhoff Institute for Physics, Heidelberg University)

181 Detection of single particle impact on a superconducting qubit

There is a growing interest in exploring how cosmic rays and natural radioactivity affect the performance of superconducting qubits. Previous studies revealed that ionizing radiation can generate quasiparticles, leading to loss of qubit states and errors when multiple qubits are involved. Thus, developing effective strategies to mitigate these effects, is crucial. We conducted experiments on a chip with transmon qubits produced at the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems (SQMS) center. The experiments were carried out in a shielded underground facility located at INFN-Gran Sasso, where we exposed the chip to radioactive sources of varying activity levels. In this presentation, we will present our preliminary data and discuss its implications on quantum computing for the development of next-generation quantum devices.

Speaker: Dr Dounia Helis (INFN - LNGS)

pisameeting_slides_dounia_helis.pdf

182 Qubit-based superconducting circuits for single microwave photon quantum sensing

Quantum Sensing is a rapidly expanding research field that finds one of its applications in Fundamental Physics, as the detection of light Dark Matter (DM). Qubit-based superconducting devices have already been successfully applied in detecting few-GHz single photons via Quantum Non-Demolition measurement. The optimization and new design schemes of circuits embedding qubits will yield notable enhancements in sensitivity and suppression of dark counts in experiments involving high-precision microwave photon detection, particularly in the search for Axions and Dark Photons.

The goal of the collaboration is to develop a novel microwave photon detector based on two qubits coupled to the same resonator, which is presented here. This could in principle significantly decrease the dark count rate, favoring applications in the aforementioned Axion DM searches.

We are investigating two possible realizations of such circuits, 2D and 3D qubit schemes. Here we report on the design and first fabrication and characterization of a 2D chip embedding a transmon qubit coupled to a $\lambda/4$ resonator, aimed at the realization of an itinerant single-photon counter, and the characterization of a transmon qubit dispersively coupled to a 3D resonant cavity, which is the first step necessary to design a transmon with the desired properties as low dark count photon detector. For the preferred 2D scheme, we extracted several parameters of interest through both the Lumped Oscillator Model and the Energy Participation Ratio methods. The simulations agree with target values within a few percent and consistency between simulation strategies has been demonstrated. Preliminary measurements at NIST demonstrated a close agreement between simulations and measurements. For the 3D scheme, we used spectroscopic techniques to estimate all the qubit parameters and we were able to measure the coherence properties of the transmon in the time domain.

More 2D and 3D qubits are currently being fabricated at CNR-IFN and FBK.

Speaker: Dr Alessio Rettaroli (INFN - LNF)

pisa16Rettaroli.pdf

183 Perspectives on Broadband Quantum-Limited Traveling-Wave Microwave Parametric Amplifiers for Fundamental Physics Measurements

Ultra-sensitive detection schemes at microwave frequencies play a central role in many advanced applications, including quantum sensing, quantum computing, and fundamental physics searches. In many of these applications, the necessity of reading a large array of devices (e.g. detectors, cavities, qubits) calls for large bandwidth amplifiers with the lowest possible noise. Solid-state amplifiers offer exceptional gain but fall short of the quantum noise limit. Traveling Wave Parametric Amplifiers (TWPAs), especially Kinetic Inductance TWPAs (KITs), present a compelling solution. KITs are simpler to fabricate than traditional TWPAs based on Josephson junction, boast a high dynamic range, magnetic field resilience, and potential operation at higher temperatures (4 K).

National research groups, such as the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, are working to enhance the performance of KIT amplifiers. These efforts focus on applications for the readout of highly sensitive detectors used in particle physics and astrophysics applications such as Transition Edge Sensors (TESs), Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs), Metallic Magnetic Calorimeters (MMCs), and resonant cavities. These amplifiers are also crucial for advancing quantum technologies, facilitating qubit readout, quantum key distribution, and microwave quantum illumination. In this presentation, I will provide an overview of the current developmental progress of KIT amplifiers, explore potential future enhancements, and discuss applications in detector and qubit readout. The advancements discussed underscore the pivotal role KITs can play in pushing the boundaries of quantum technologies by demonstrating enhanced performance and versatility in highly sensitive systems.

Speaker: Dr Andrea Giachero (INFN - Milano Bicocca)

giachero.PisaMeeting.pdf

184 A quantum-enhanced search of axion dark matter

The QCD axion, both a dark matter candidate and a solution to the strong CP problem, is made difficult to detect by its weak coupling to ordinary matter. The axion haloscope, proposed and first realized more than three decades ago, is still the most promising detection platform to probe the coupling with the photon with the required sensitivity. However, even with best microwave cavity and superconducting magnets technologies, it requires many hundreds of years to scan just a mass decade. A technology that will permit more efficient searches is the single microwave photon detector (SMPD), that by circumventing the quantum limit on the system noise of the linear amplification (SQL) has the potential to improve the haloscope speed by a few orders or magnitude.
We will report the results of a prototype haloscope experiment, in which axions are searched as exclusive constituents of the Galactic dark matter halo by means of a 7.37 GHz cylindrical microwave cavity under a 2 T field and readout by a SMPD. Our results allow to exclude axion-photon couplings to within one order of magnitude from the QCD prediction, with a gain of about 500 compared to SQL.

Speaker: Caterina Braggio (INFN - Padova)

Biodola.pdf

185 The kinetic inductance detectors for the MISTRAL instrument: installation and characterization at the Sardinia Radio Telescope

The MISTRAL instrument, a cryogenic W-band camera equipped with 415 lumped element kinetic inductance detectors, achieved a significant milestone in May 2023 with its successful installation at the Gregorian focus of the Sardinia Radio Telescope, a 64 m aperture telescope in Italy. MISTRAL features a focal plane of approximately 80 mm in diameter, providing an instantaneous field of view of about 4 arcmin. The telescope's angular resolution is $\sim$12 arcsec, and the focal plane has been over-sampled with pixels separated by 4.2 mm, meaning a pixel separation of approximately 10.6 arcsec.
The lumped element kinetic inductance detectors in MISTRAL are made of a titanium-aluminum bilayer, 10+30 nm thick, on a 100mm-diameter Silicon wafer, 235 microns thick. The detectors are designed to have 415 resonances over a $\sim$500MHz bandwidth, to work in a temperature range of 200 to 240 mK, and to be sensitive in the W-band.
In this contribution, we describe the design, electrical, and optical characterization of the detector array, with specific emphasis on yield, pixel identification, optical performance, and calibration procedures. Based on the measured performance, the forecast for MISTRAL at SRT indicates a NEFD within the 5 to 15 mJy $\sqrt{\rm s}$ and a mapping speed ranging from 170 to 1500 ${\rm arcsec^2/mJy^2/h}$, depending on the scanning strategy and data filtering.
The synergy of detector performance, high angular resolution and a wide instantaneous field of view makes MISTRAL as an exceptionally versatile tool for millimeter-wave sky surveys, significantly enhancing the observational capabilities of the Sardinia Radio Telescope.

Speaker: Alessandro Paiella (Università di Roma / INFN)

Paiella_PM2024.pdf

10:10 Coffee break

186 first results DAREDEVIL with GaAs mK calorimeter

The DAREDEVIL (DARk-mattEr-DEVIces-for-Low-energy-detection) is a new project aiming to develop a novel class of detectors to study Dark Matter candidates with mass below 1 Gev/c2. The detection channel is DM-electron scattering, where the excitation energies of the electrons should be matched to the transferred momenta. The only materials with energy gaps of eV or below are special semiconductors, Dirac Semimetals, Weyl Semimetals, Scintillators. Such materials, already explored as light dark matter detection media from a theoretical point of view, will be implemented in a detector. This is the mail goal of the DARDEVIL project The first phase of the project aims at designing a novel class of gram-scale detectors with meV threshold suitable for light DM-electron scattering detection. In order to achieve the high performances needed for detecting such small energy depositions we will use these crystals as absorbers in low temperature calorimeters with dual phonon and IR-photon readout.
In this contribution we present the very first results of a low temperature calorimeter based on GaAs as the target crystal, operated at 15 mK coupled to a Neutron Transmutation Doped thermistor for the phonon readout and facing a CdTeHg-based photon detector tuned to detect its IR scintillation light.

Speaker: Andrea Melchiorre (Università dell'Aquila / INFN)

First results DAREDEVIL with GaAs mK calorimeter-1.pdf

187 ELECTRON - Development of High Resolution Metallic Microcalorimeters for a Future Neutrino Mass Experiment with Tritium

Metallic Magnetic Calorimeters (MMCs) are low temperature single particle detectors, whose working principle is based on quantum technology. Due to their excellent energy resolution, near linear detector response, fast signal rise time and close to 100% quantum efficiency, MMCs outperform conventional detectors by several orders of magnitude, making them interesting for a wide range of different applications. This technology would be of particular interest for the next-generation neutrino mass experiment with tritium, which would aim beyond the sensitivity goal of the most-sensitive KATRIN experiment ($m_{\nu} \, < \, 200 \, \mathrm{meV}$).
However, although MMCs have previously been used in measurements of photons and heavy ions with great success, no information is currently available on the interaction between the MMC detectors and external light charger particles (i.e. electrons).
This is precisely the goal of the ELECTRON project, which aims to provide this missing information and demonstrate, for the first time, that MMC based detectors can be employed for a high resolution spectroscopy of external electron sources. To this end, three different electron sources will be used to study the interplay between the MMC detector and the electrons, as well as to identify potential systematic effects. Electron-gun, which offers a possibility to easily adjust the rate and the energy of the electrons, and Kr-83m, with its well defined conversion electron lines, will be used for a proper characterisation and calibration of the detectors. Once the detector behaviour is well characterised, newly developed tritium sources will be employed for the first measurements of the tritium $\beta$-decay spectrum with a cryogenic microcalorimeter, paving the way for the next generation neutrino experiments with tritium.
We present the results of the first measurement campaigns, which include the measurements of the Kr-83m spectrum together with the first ever measured tritium β-decay spectrum obtained with a cryogenic microcalorimeter.

Speaker: Neven Kovac (KIT)

Kovac_PM2024.pdf

Detector Techniques for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics - Poster session

This session will be on display on Thursday morning and Friday afternoon.
Link to the contributions

188 The Large Imaging Spectrometer for Solar Accelerated Nuclei (LISSAN): A Next-Generation Solar gamma-ray Spectroscopic Imaging Instrument Concept

We present the large imaging spectrometer for solar accelerated nuclei (LISSAN), a new solar-dedicated satellite instrument concept. LISSAN relies on an indirect Fourier imaging technique valid over an energy range of 40 keV up to 100 MeV. Spatial information is encoded into 15 moiré patterns by 15 pairs of slightly offset grids (bigrids) separated by a fixed distance enabling a predicted spatial resolution of 10". The time, location, and energy of each incoming photon is recorded via a pixelated gadolinium aluminum gallium garnet (GAGG) crystal scintillator detector placed in alignment with each bigrid, therefore providing simultaneous imaging and spectroscopy from the same imaging system. X-ray and gamma-ray emission are key diagnostics of electron and ion acceleration, respectively. However, despite being a fundamental process that occurs throughout the Universe, particularly in the solar atmosphere, only one resolved gamma-ray image of ion acceleration in a solar flare has ever been achieved. LISSAN will shed new light on this process by providing spectral resolution better than 1.5% FWHM at 6.1 MeV, an imaging effective area at 2.2 MeV of 100 cm$^2$ (more than 25 times greater than past missions such as RHESSI) and a 10 second cadence. Thanks to these significant advances over the previous satellite-based solar detectors, LISSAN will provide reliable imaging and the spectral characterization of both electron and ion acceleration in solar eruptive events simultaneously for the first time, enabling to it to answer several important open questions regarding solar particle acceleration and the initiation of space weather events.

Speaker: Melissa Pesce-Rollins (INFN - Pisa)

LISSAN_poster.pdf

melissa_pescerollins.jpg

189 HERD space mission: Probing the Galactic Cosmic Ray frontier

The High Energy cosmic Radiation Detection (HERD) facility, is a flagship space-borne instrument to be installed on-board China Space Station (CSS), around 2027. Its primary scientific goals include: precise measurements of Cosmic Ray (CR) energy spectra and mass composition up to the highest achievable energies in space (~ few PeV), gamma ray astronomy and transient studies, along with indirect searches for Dark Matter particles. HERD is designed to detect incident particles from both its top and four lateral faces. Owing to its pioneering design, an order of magnitude increase in geometric acceptance is foreseen, compared to current generation experiments.

HERD is conceived around a deep (~55 X$_{0}$, 3 λ$_{I}$) and highly-segmented 3D calorimeter (CALO). Furthermore, a Fiber Tracker (FIT) is instrumented on all active sides, while a Plastic Scintillator Detector (PSD) covers the aforementioned calorimeter and tracker. Ultimately, a Silicon Charge Detector (SCD) envelops the above-stated sub-detectors, with a Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) instrumented on one of its lateral faces, for energy calibration in the TeV scale. A detailed overview of the detector will be provided in this work, ranging from its scientific objectives and recent advancements, up to its current and future activities.

Speaker: Irene Cagnoli (GSSI / LNGS - INFN)

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poster-HERD-Pisa-Meeting2024.pdf

190 Status and perspective of ICARUS-T600 detector at the Fermilab Short- Baseline Neutrino Program

The ICARUS collaboration has employed the 760-ton T600 detector in a successful three-year physics run at the underground LNGS laboratory, performing a sensitive search for LSND-like anomalous neutrino-e appearance in the CERN Neutrino to Gran Sasso beam, which contributed to the constraints on the allowed neutrino oscillation parameters to a narrow region around 1 eV$^2$ . After a significant overhaul at CERN, the T600 detector has been installed at Fermilab. In 2020 the cryogenic commissioning began with detector cool down, liquid argon filling and recirculation. ICARUS then started its operation collecting the first neutrino events from the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) and the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beam off-axis, which were used to test the ICARUS event selection, reconstruction and analysis algorithms. ICARUS successfully completed its commissioning phase in June 2022, moving then to data taking for neutrino oscillation physics, aiming at first to either confirm or refute the claim by Neutrino-4 short-baseline reactor. ICARUS will also jointly search for evidence of sterile neutrinos with the Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND), within the Fermilab Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program experiment and perform measurements of neutrino cross sections with the NuMI beam and several Beyond Standard Model searches.
In this presentation, the main technical achievements of the ICARUS detector subsystems (Time Projection Chambers, Light Photodetection System, Cosmic Ray Tagger, Trigger and Data Acquisition) obtained with both BNB and NuMI neutrino beams during the commissioning phase and early data taking, will be presented in terms of the overall detector performance and capability to select and reconstruct neutrino events.

Speaker: Francesco Poppi (INFN - Bologna)

PosterBiodolaPoppiV2.pdf

191 POEMMA-Balloon with radio: A balloon born Multi-Messenger Multi-Detector Observatory

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is a proposed dual-satellite mission to observe Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) increase the statistics at the highest energies and Very-High-Energy Neutrinos (VHENs) following multi-messenger alerts of astrophysical transient events, such as gamma-ray bursts and gravitational wave events, throughout the universe.
POEMMA-Balloon with radio (PBR) is a small-scale version of the POEMMA design, adapted to be flown as a payload on one of NASA's suborbital Super Pressure Balloons (SPBs) circling over the Southern Ocean for up to 100 days after a launch from Wanaka, New Zealand.
The main science objectives of PBR are: (1) to observe UHECRs via the fluorescence technique from suborbital space; (2) to observe horizontal high-altitude air showers (HAHAs) with energies above the cosmic ray knee (E>0.5 PeV) using the optical and radio detection for the first time; and (3) to follow astrophysical event alerts in the search of VHENs.
The PBR instrument consists of a 1.1m aperture Schmidt telescope
similar to the POEMMA design with two cameras in its focal surface: a Fluorescence Camera (FC) and a Cherenkov Camera (CC). In addition, PBR has a Radio Instrument (RI) optimized for the detection of EASs (covering the 50-550 Mhz range).
The FC observes UHECR-induced EASs in the ultraviolet (UV) using
an array of 9216 pixels Multi-Anode Photo-Multiplier Tubes (MAPMTs) imaged every 1 μs. The CC uses a 2048-pixel Silicon Photo-Multiplier (SiPM) imager to observe cosmic-ray-induced HAHAs and search for neutrino-induced upward-going EASs. The CC covers a spectral range of 320-900nm with an integration time of 10 ns.
This overview will provide a summary of the mission with its science goals, the instruments, and the current status of PBR.

Speaker: Matteo Battisti (APC - CNRS/IN2P3)

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poster-PBR_overview.pdf

192 Imaging systems for the liquid Argon target of SAND at the DUNE Near Detector Complex

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) has among its primary goals the determination of the neutrino mass ordering and the possible CP-violating phase in the neutrino mixing matrix.
The System for On-Axis Neutrino Detection (SAND) is one of the three components of the DUNE Near Detector complex, permanently located on-axis to monitor the neutrino beam stability and measure its flux. SAND
includes a novel liquid Argon detector - GRAIN - designed to image neutrino interactions using scintillation light produced in Ar by charged particles, eliminating the dependence on slow charge collection of LAr TPCs.
Two optical systems are currently being developed for GRAIN, both based on Silicon Multiplier (SiPM) matrices, coupled either to UV cryogenic lenses or Coded Aperture masks.
This contribution will discuss the preliminary design of both GRAIN optical systems, with a particular focus on the Coded Aperture system and its reconstruction algorithm. This algorithm is based on an iterative approach of Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization and has been optimized for GPU usage in order to achieve the necessary performance.
A preliminary analysis of the anticipated performance of charged particle tracks reconstruction in GRAIN with the Coded Aperture mask system will be presented, with a comparison with the lens-based system

Speaker: Valentina Cicero (INFN - Bologna)

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poster-VCicero-pisameeting2024.pdf

193 The Zirè instrument onboard the NUSES space mission

NUSES is a new space mission aiming to test innovative observational and technological approaches related to the study of low energy cosmic and gamma rays, high energy astrophysical neutrinos, Sun-Earth environment, Space weather and magnetosphere-ionosphere-lithosphere coupling (MILC). The satellite will host two payloads: Terzina and Zirè. The Zirè instrument will perform measurements of electrons, protons and light nuclei from a few up to hundreds MeV, also testing new tools for the detection of cosmic MeV photons. For these purposes the Zirè instrument will include a Fiber TracKer (FTK), a Plastic Scintillator Tower (PST), a calorimeter (CALOg) and an AntiCoincidence System (ACS). Particle energies will be measured by the range and/or the total deposit, while particle identification will be provided by the DeltaE-E technique. The CALOg will also be used to measure cosmic photons at MeV energies exploiting dedicated windows in the satellite platform. Sensitivity to lower energy electrons will be provided by a dedicated Low Energy Module (LEM).
Innovative technologies for space-based particle detectors will be adopted and tested thus increasing the corresponding Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) of the adopted solutions. The light readout system (from plastic scintillators and crystals) will be entirely provided by Silicon Photo Multipliers (SiPMs), thus ensuring a compact and light design. The satellite will operate on a low-earth and sun-synchronous polar orbit. For this reason, particular attention has been paid to the evaluation of radiation doses that will be integrated by the sensors and their effects on detector efficiency, dark currents and power budget. In this work, a general overview of the Zirè payload will be given, together with a focus on the design activities, and the review of dedicated tests of the first prototypes.

Speaker: Giuliana Panzarini (INFN - Bari)

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poster_Panzarini_Giuliana.pdf

194 Future Gravitational Wave Detectors: Phase Noise Investigation and Magnetic Noise Mitigation Strategies

The sensitivity of gravitational wave (GW) detectors is constrained by various sources of
noise. Quantum noise pervades the entire frequency band of the current detectors (10
Hz - 10 kHz), while magnetic noise will significantly constrain the sensitivity of future
GW detectors, such as the Einstein Telescope (ET), especially at low frequencies (a few
Hz to around 100 Hz).
This poster highlights strategies to mitigate magnetic noise, including emission
reduction from critical sources and shielding sensitive coupling locations. Additionally, it
presents a thorough examination of phase noise causes, employing software
simulations to identify methods for addressing these issues in future detectors such as
the ET.
In particular, quantum noise manifests in fluctuations in phase (shot-noise) and in
amplitude (radiation-pressure noise), in accordance with Heisenberg's Uncertainty
Principle. One approach to reduce quantum noise is injecting squeezed light states into
the dark port of the interferometer, although degradation can occur due to losses and
phase noise. Phase noise can be generated by both the squeezing system and the
interferometer itself.
Magnetic noise results from coupling of environmental fields with magnetized elements,
such as magnet-coil actuators and Faraday isolators. Sources of environmental fields
include the natural background associated with Schumann Resonances, on the order of
pT/sqrt(Hz), and “self-inflicted” noise. The latter involves any device carrying an electric
current, such as power grid cables, motors, pumps or conductive materials, which are
part of the detector infrastructure. Ambient magnetic fields exert forces on permanent
magnets or ferromagnetic materials, creating field gradients and induced currents in
sensitive electronics and within conductive objects, thereby amplifying the field
gradients. Leveraging experience from Virgo and KAGRA, efforts have been made to
identify the contributors to magnetic noise, aiming to optimize them in the future ET
infrastructure.

Speaker: Barbara Garaventa (INFN - Genova)

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Poster_16thPisaMeeting_B.Garaventa_FinalVers.pdf

195 Simulating seismic isolation systems for the third-generation Gravitational Wave interferometers

Third-generation ground-based gravitational wave interferometers will broaden our view of the Universe. The Einstein Telescope (ET), expected to be built in Europe in 2030’s will be an order of magnitude more sensitive than current interferometers like Advanced Virgo, LIGO and KAGRA and will have a frequency range extending down to 3 Hz. This low-frequency sensitivity will allow the detection of binary compact coalescence up to high redshift, improve the capability to study intermediate-mass black holes and enhance early alerts of binary neutron star coalescence. Design new generation seismic attenuation system is crucial to achieve higher sensitivity at low frequencies with respect to current interferometers. We present new simulation studies aiming at the design and optimization of prototypes of passive seismic isolation for the Einstein Telescope. The aim is to decrease the size of seismic attenuators, which are 17-m high in the current design, and significantly reduce the amount of underground civil works needed. The simulations, that foresee the inclusion of feedback by traditional means or through machine learning, allows to explore different seismic attenuation configurations under development, . that are offering a new promising perspective for the seismic isolation of the Einstein Telescope.

Speaker: Massimiliano Razzano (Università di Pisa / INFN)

2024_ET_PM2024-v3.pdf

picture_ET_razzano_spada.jpg

196 Latest results from the CUORE experiment

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is the first bolometric experiment searching for 0νββ decay that has successfully reached the one-tonne mass scale. The detector, located at the LNGS in Italy, consists of an array of 988 TeO2 crystals arranged in a compact cylindrical structure of 19 towers. CUORE began its first physics data run in 2017 at a base temperature of about 10 mK and has been collecting data continuously since 2019, reaching a TeO2 exposure of 2 tonne-year in spring 2023. This is the largest amount of data ever acquired with a solid state cryogenic detector, which allows for further improvement in the CUORE sensitivity to 0νββ decay in 130Te. In this talk, we will present the new CUORE data release, based on the full available statistics and on new, significant enhancements of the data processing chain and high-level analysis.

Speaker: Elena Ferri (INFN - Milano Bicocca)

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poster-eferri-id1.pdf

197 Status and perspectives of the POKER detector for Dark Sector searches

The search for Dark Matter is currently one of the open questions in physics research beyond the Standard Model. The light Dark Matter hypothesis foresees particle candidates with a mass lower than a few GeV/c^2, interacting with ordinary matter through a force; among the various possible models, that of the "dark photon" postulates the existence of a new U(1) type interaction mediated by a massive vector boson.
The NA64 experiment at CERN investigates the existence of light Dark Matter via the “missing energy” technique through a 100 GeV electron beam impacting an active fixed target (ECAL). In this context, the POKER project proposes using a lower energy positron beam (tens of GeV) to exploit resonant annihilation with atomic electrons as a signal production mechanism. POKER plans to exploit the existing NA64 setup, with some upgrades required by the different measurement conditions. In particular, a new high-resolution active target will be used, consisting of scintillating crystals of lead tungstate (PbWO4).
These crystals undergo radiation damage which can lead to a worsening of their optical properties. Furthermore, the peculiarities of the SPS beam at CERN require developing a custom readout and bias system to compensate for short-term variations of the beam intensity, that could potentially affect the photosensors gain and thus the detector resolution. In this context, I will present the work carried out to characterize the POKER crystals and the light signal readout system.

Speaker: Anna Marini (INFN - Genova)

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Poster_Anna_Marini.pdf

198 Charge Monitoring of Test Masses in Gravitational Wave Interferometers

The sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors is impacted by several noise sources. This presentation centers on noise mitigation associated with charge deposition on the test mass (TM). The main challenge involves the uncertainty surrounding the process leading to charge deposition on TMs, as well as the lack of precise knowledge regarding the distribution and intensity of the charge.

My proposed solution to overcome this challenge entails implementing a real-time monitoring system. Particularly, the study involved placing sensors on the cages surrounding the Virgo’s test masses using COMSOL Multiphysics software. Conducting over 10,000 simulations with various Gaussian charge distributions, I employed data analysis techniques, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), to facilitate sensor ranking. The charge value and position reconstruction was accomplished through neural networks utilizing Matlab software.

Using just the best four sensors selected by PCA, promising results are achieved. With a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of 20, the neural network accurately distinguishes whether the charge is located on the front or back face of the test mass and in which quadrant. Specifically, the accuracy is approximately 0.8 for front-back discrimination and 0.7 for quadrant determination.

Speaker: Mr Federico Armato (Università di Genova / INFN)

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poster-Federico_Armato.pdf

199 Precise detector of JUNO-TAO experiment

Taishan Antineutrino Observatory (TAO) is a ton scale liquid scintillator (LS) detector and proposed to precisely measure reactor neutrino energy spectrum with as high as possible energy resolution, which can provide a reference spectrum for Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) and a benchmark to verify the nuclear database.
As a satellite experiment of JUNO, TAO will be installed near the reactor core with a distance of ~30 m. The detector uses 2.6 ton gadolinium-doped LS (1 ton fiducial volume) contained in a spherical acrylic vessel. To maximize the photon collection efficiency in the detector, 10 m2 SiPM array is proposed to fully cover the acrylic vessel and collect scintillation photons as many as possible. The photon detection efficiency of SiPM should be larger than 50%, in order to achieve the desired energy resolution (1.5%/sqrt(E) photon statistical resolution). The SiPMs will also be operated at low temperature (-50 degree or lower) to reduce the dark noise. Meanwhile, a shield and muon veto system will be located outside of the neutrino detector to control the background to the system. In this talk, an overview and progress of the JUNO-TAO will be reported.

Speaker: Zhimin Wang (Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS)

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Poster-Precise detector of JUNO-TAO experiment-20240516.pdf

Summary-Precise detector of JUNO-TAO experiment-20240516.pdf

200 CYGNO: an optically readout TPC for Dark Matter and neutrinos study

The CYGNO experiment is developing a high-precision gaseous Time Projection Chamber for directional dark matter search and solar neutrino spectroscopy, to be installed at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories (LNGS).
To achieve this goal, the collaboration is realising a TPC operating at atmospheric pressure, in which the secondary scintillation of a triple-GEM stack is acquired by a system consisting of Active Pixel Sensors based on sCMOS technology, with more than 4 million pixels each, and fast photo-multipliers.
This technology provides information such as the released energy and its spatial profile, 3D direction and 3D position that makes it possible to reconstruct and identify the ionisation produced in the gas by electronic or nuclear recoils with energies down to a few keV.
The use of a mixture based on He and CF4 allows excellent energy transfer from possible WIMPs of mass around GeV, making it the ideal target for possible light WIMPs of masses in the GeV range being also sensitive to the spin-dependent coupling thanks to fluorine.
In this presentation we will describe the operation of our 50-litre prototype (LIME) in the underground laboratories of the Gran Sasso, which represents the largest prototype developed by CYGNO to date, focusing in particular on studies relating to the identification of low-energy nuclear power.
In addition, we will show the design of the demonstrator of approximately half a cubic metre that will be installed in LNGS Hall F in 2025, and the physics potential that a future O(30 m3) experiment could bring.
Finally, we discuss some of the R&D carried out to maximise CYGNO's potential, including the study of hydrogen-based mixtures and the recent achievement of atmospheric pressure negative ion drift operation with optical readout, carried out in synergy with the ERC's INITIUM project.

Speaker: Davide Pinci (INFN - Roma 1)

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posterCYGNO-PisaMeet-Davide.pdf

201 The CUPID neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment

Neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) is a key process to address some of the major outstanding issues in particle physics, such as the lepton number conservation and the Majorana nature of the neutrino. Several efforts have taken place in the last decades in order to reach higher and higher sensitivity on its half-life. The next-generation of experiments aims at covering the Inverted-Ordering region of the neutrino mass spectrum, with sensitivities on the half-lives greater than 1E27 years. Among the exploited techniques, low-temperature calorimetry has proved to be a very promising one, and will keep its leading role in the future thanks to the CUPID experiment. CUPID (CUORE Upgrade with Particle IDentification) will search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 100Mo and will exploit the existing cryogenic infrastructure as well as the gained experience of CUORE, at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. Thanks to 1596 scintillating Li2MoO4 crystals, enriched in 100Mo, coupled to 1710 light detectors CUPID will have simultaneous readout of heat and light that will allow for particle identification, and thus a powerful alpha background rejection. Numerous studies and R&D projects are currently ongoing in a coordinated effort aimed at finalizing the design of the CUPID detector and at assessing its performance and physics reach. In our talk, we will present the current status of CUPID and outline the forthcoming steps towards the construction of the experiment.

Speaker: Davide Trotta (INFN - Milano Bicocca)

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poster-CUPID.pdf

202 MATHUSLA detector prototyping

The MATHUSLA collaboration has proposed to construct a large area detector on the surface above the CMS experiment. Such a detector would search for long-lived exotic particles produced in the $pp$ collisions at the LHC. In order to maximize acceptance and sensitivity, MATHUSLA intends to instrument a large surface area with multiple layers of scintillator bars. The massive scale of the detector requires a high level of modularity and cost efficiency in the design. To achieve these goals, MATHUSLA will use extruded scintillator bars with WaveLength Shifting Fibre (WLSF) threaded through for light collection. This results in a basic detector unit of 2.5m long scintillator bars threaded with a WLSF that terminate at SiPMs on either end. These units are combined into increasingly larger mechanical assemblies to construct the modular MATHUSLA detector layers. At the University of Victoria we are making use of a desktop darkbox as well as MATHUSLA prototype detector made of 4 MATHUSLA-like layers of scintillator to characterize the performance of the various WLSF compounds, SiPMs, and scintillator dimensions. This talk will present an overview of our test setup, our experiences working with WLSFs and SiPMs in combination, and future plans.

Speaker: Prof. Paolo Camarri (INFN - Roma 2)

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poster_Camarri_Miller.pdf

203 Innovative electrodes for xenon based dual-phase time projection chambers for direct dark matter detection

The direct detection of particle dark matter is one of the most compelling challenges of modern fundamental physics. Xenon based dual-phase time projection chambers (DP-TPCs) are the leading technology for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) search. The DP-TPC approach proved to be reliable, highly sensitive, intrinsically low-background and especially easily scalable until an active volume of few tons. However, when scaling to even larger masses other challenges show up, such as the requirement of a stronger drift field and the more stringent mechanical constraints for the larger needed electrodes. This work is based on the realization of transparent conductive layers deposited on a transparent support (UV grade fused silica window), that could possibly solve the difficulties related to the realization and correct functioning of the very large electrodes needed for the next-generation DP-TPCs. So far Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO), $Al_2O_3$-doped Zinc-Oxide (AZO) and Graphene thin films were already designed, fabricated and preliminarily characterized in collaboration with the CREO laboratories (in L’Aquila). Currently, other layer materials and deposition techniques are under investigation. A liquid xenon single phase TPC of small dimensions is currently being installed at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN. This work focuses on the characterization results of the transparent conductive layers to evaluate their performances in this test facility.

Speaker: Chiara Di Donato (Università dell'Aquila / INFN)

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Poster_ChiaraDiDonato_PisaMeeting24.pdf

204 Measuring Heavy and Ultra-heavy Galactic Cosmic-Ray Abundances with TIGERISS

The Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder for the International Space Station (TIGERISS) is the upcoming successor to the TIGER and SuperTIGER balloon-borne missions, which have measured the abundances of ultra-heavy galactic cosmic rays (UHGCRs) over a series of successful Antarctic campaigns. UHGCRs are a unique probe of the galactic cosmic-ray reservoir and the material produced in extreme environments. Beyond 28Ni, elements must largely be produced in the slow and rapid neutron capture processes (s-process and r-process, respectively). Existing single-element resolution measurements up to 40Zr have shown a strong consistency with production and shock acceleration in OB associations and compositional enhancements from heavy stellar winds and modeled supernova yields. Recent SuperTIGER results, however, demonstrate that this model breaks down above 40Zr, potentially indicating the presence of an additional source of UHGCRs. The detection of a kilonova in follow-up electromagnetic observations to the GW170817 binary neutron star merger gravitational wave event demonstrated clear evidence of r-process nucleosynthesis, and the Astro2020 decadal review highlighted the identification of r-process sites in the galaxy as a high-priority science target.

TIGERISS will extend the measurements by SuperTIGER up to 82Pb or beyond with single-element charge resolution, a vantage point above the atmosphere, and a large potential exposure. The instrument uses a combination of silicon strip detectors (SSDs) and Cherenkov light-integrating detectors to measure the charge with high fidelity and a de-coupling of the ionization signal from the incident particle velocity. The project is in design and engineering development unit testing, with a planned launch in 2026 for a nominal one-year operational period. Accumulated statistics will rival those of SuperTIGER in the UHGCR range, with sensitivity to lower and higher-charge elements with no detector saturation. TIGERISS measurements will be combined with modeled yields to constrain the contribution of different sources to the galactic r-process budget.

Speaker: Nicholas Cannady (University of Maryland / NASA)

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poster-Cannady-PisaMeeting.pdf

205 Keeping my beams in shape for next generation gravitational-wave detectors

Employing km-scale cavity-enhanced interferometry, gravitational-wave detectors have detected tens of compact binary coalescences to date. Next generation detectors like the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer aim to improve current detector sensitivity by one order of magnitude. Not only a huge increase in detection statistics is expected but also an unprecedented reach to very high cosmological redshift will be possible.
In order to achieve the target sensitivity, some of the upgrades needed with respect to current detectors are to increase the optical power in the main optical cavities by up to 8 times and improve the quantum noise reduction from 6 to 10dB.
Higher circulating power can cause thermal effects that lead to aberrations of the circulating beams resulting in higher optical losses. These losses are a big limitation to the amount of achievable quantum noise reduction. A necessary 10-fold decrease in optical losses is estimated in order to reach the 10dB goal.
Currently, efforts are being made into improving the ways we monitor the wavefront of circulating beams. In particular, phase cameras are wavefront sensors capable of imaging the 2D amplitude and phase of a beam. I will present a table-top study employing the phase camera images to measure the spatial mismatch of a beam coupling into an optical cavity. I will show how different error signals can be extracted from the phase camera information and how they can be used with different actuation schemes. The goal is to showcase how the phase camera can be used in future detectors to minimise optical losses and reach our sensitivity goals.

Speaker: Ricardo Cabrita (UCLouvain)

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poster_RicardoCabrita_PM2024.pdf

206 Search for Gravitational Waves using a Network of RF Cavities

The idea of searching for high frequency gravitational waves using resonant cavities in strong magnetic fields has recently received significant attention. In particular, cavities with rather small volumes that are currently used to search for axions are discussed in this context.

We show the optimization of RF-cavities to gravitational wave signals in the 8 GHz regime. High frequency gravitational waves could be generated e.g. by primordial black hole mergers of $\mathcal{O}(10^{-7})M_\odot$ or by super radiance instabilities of boson clouds around black holes. During the optimization process different cavity geometries, materials and analysis techniques have been investigated.

Although signatures of gravitational waves may be present as identifiable signals in a single cavity, it is highly challenging to distinguish them from noise. By analysing the correlation between signals from multiple (possibly even geographically separated) cavities it is not only possible to substantially increase the signal over noise ratio, but also to investigate the nature and the source of those gravitational wave signatures. This novel approach of a network of gravitational wave detectors for ultra high frequency gravitational waves is presented as well.

Speaker: Tim Schneemann (Universität Mainz)

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poster-GravNet.pdf

207 The DARWIN experiment and the development of assay techniques for large electrodes

The current generation of liquid xenon (lXe) filled experiments searching for dark matter (DM) are achieving ever more stringent limits on the DM's interaction cross section with ordinary matter. These experiments feature dual-phase xenon time projection chambers (TPCs), employing $3.7\,\text{ton}$ to $5.9\,\text{ton}$ lXe in their fiducial volumes to search for nuclear recoils induced when weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) scatter on a xenon nucleus. The next generation of these detectors should have the capability to access the phase-space for WIMP detection down to the region where neutrino interactions on lXe become an irreducible background. DARWIN is a proposal for such a next generation experiment with sensitivity down to the neutrino fog. It will also search for other types of DM than WIMPS as well as for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of $^{136}\text{Xe}$, and measure astrophysical neutrinos.

At its core DARWIN will be a dual-phase xenon TPC with a diameter and height $\gtrsim\!\!2.6\,\text{m}$. VUV sensitive and ultra-low background photosensors will read the scintillation light of the primary energy deposition (S1) and the electroluminescence light produced in the vapour phase above the liquid (S2). The latter occurs when the primary electrons are drifted to the lXe surface and extracted there in the high electric field between a gate electrode and an anode. Manufacturing these electrodes is challenging as they need to retain their performance after several cryogenic cycles, they can only be made of ultra-low background materials, they need to be as transparent as possible, and they must not develop high voltage instabilities over the lifetime of the experiment.

This talk will be an overview of the current research and development (R&D) status of the Darwin experiment. Furthermore, the ongoing R\&D work on electrode assay techniques at the Prisma Laboratory at the University of Mainz will be shown.

Speaker: Alexander Deisting (Universität Mainz)

picture-PISA_Darwin_A-Deisting.png

poster-PISA_Darwin_A-Deisting.pdf

208 First measurements of the HOLMES neutrino mass experiment

Concerning particle physics and cosmology, the neutrino mass measurement will shed light on several important open issues. Neutrino mass information can be extrapolated from a beta-decay spectrum analysis. Not relying on any theoretical hypothesis but energy-momentum conservation, this is known as direct measurement. In this field, the state-of-the-art is represented by the KATRIN spectrometer which will improve its sensitivity at most to O(0.2 eV).

An alternative for future research is the calorimetric approach. By embedding the beta source inside the detector the decay products are fully contained and several systematic effects are avoided. The HOLMES experiment will prove the feasibility of this approach by ion-implanting a source of $^{163}$Ho in Transition Edge Sensors (TESs). These microcalorimeters ensure high energy and time resolutions. They also allow a distribution of the total activity over a large number of pixels that we read out using the $\mu$-wave multiplexing technique. $^{163}$Ho electron capture (EC) was proposed for direct neutrino mass determination because of its low Q-value ($\sim$2.83 keV) that increases the fraction of useful events in the region close to the spectrum end-point.

An array of 64 TESs has already been measured. The EC spectrum reconstruction will be performed with a robust set of data filtering routines while its endpoint region will be analyzed with Bayesian-based algorithms. Once the first $^{163}$Ho low-dose implantation was accomplished, a preliminary measurement with a pixel activity of O(1 Bq) began in late 2023. Using an external source, the experiment calibrated the $^{163}$Ho spectral features. By increasing the amount of collected data during 2024, HOLMES will assess an initial upper limit on m$_{\nu}$ of about $\sim$ 30 eV. In my contribution, I will summarize the results obtained so far from the HOLMES first measurements.

Speaker: Luca Origo (Università di Milano Bicocca / INFN)

picture-Origo-Luca-HOLMES.jpg

poster-Origo-Luca-HOLMES.pdf

209 Evaluation of Timepix3 for applications as Compton scatter polarimeter in the hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray band

Timepix3 hybrid semiconductor detector offers a fine grid of 256$\times$256 pixels with 55 um pitch. Thanks to 1.56 ns timing precision, it is possible to use Timepix3 as a time projection chamber and reconstruct events in 3D. This makes Timepix3 suitable for simultaneous usage as a single-layer Compton camera and a scattering polarimeter. The need for at least two coincident interactions greatly reduces background in itself and the capability of Timepix3 for track classification can further help in background suppresion. In laboratory experiments with X-ray photons scattering on a plastic target, we found up to 80 % modulation with a 1-mm thick silicon Timepix3 sensor. By using simple back-projection of cones in Compton camera, we were able to locate direction to the scattering target. We will present results from laboratory measurements with silicon and CdTe Timepix3 and their comparison to simulations. We will outline the possible usage of Timepix3 or the newer Timepix4 detectors in X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy. A polarimeter based on Timepix3 detectors could perform measurements in not yet well understood energy range from 100 keV to units of MeV.

Speaker: Jindrich Jelinek (University of Geneva / IEAP CTU)

picture-Jelinek-IMG_4901_01.jpg

poster-Jelinek-Pisa-Meeting-3.pdf

210 Advancements in Multi-Wavelength Data Analysis: The ThreeML Framework for High-Energy Astronomy

The Multi Mission Maximum Likelihood framework (ThreeML) is a Python-based software package designed for multi-wavelength data analysis in high-energy astronomy. Integrating X-ray and gamma-ray data from various instruments, along with measurements at lower wavelengths, is essential for unlocking the full potential of observational data. However, the lack of standardization and unique challenges posed by each instrument often complicate the process of combining data from multiple sources. ThreeML addresses these challenges with its flexible, plugin-based structure, allowing for the seamless inclusion of data from diverse observatories in their native formats. Leveraging astromodels, a versatile modeling framework, ThreeML enables separate handling of source modeling and data access from likelihood optimization, facilitating a flexible combination of both aspects. Moreover, in addition to frequentist maximum likelihood analysis, ThreeML supports Bayesian analysis through posterior distribution sampling.
We will provide an overview of the current status of ThreeML and we will introduce new plugins developed for the Imaging X-ray Polarimeter Explorer (IXPE) and the gammapy plugin. The gammapy plugin serves to bridge the gap between space-based GeV and ground-based TeV gamma-ray astronomy, enhancing the software's capabilities in accommodating a wide range of data sources for comprehensive high-energy astrophysical studies.

Speaker: Nicola Omodei (Stanford University / KIPAC)

picture-3ML-omodei.jpeg

poster-3ML-omodei.pdf

211 LEGEND: Towards a Tonne-Scale Germanium Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay Experiment

Neutrinoless double-beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) poses an exciting way of probing the absolute neutrino mass and the Majorana nature of the neutrino. Regardless of the mechanism involved in its production, the observation of $0\nu\beta\beta$ implies new physics, exhibiting lepton number violation, and providing insight into the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. Ge detector technology is extremely well suited for is challenge. The Large Enriched Experiment for Neutrinoless Double-beta Decay (LEGEND), is making use of this technology to search for $0\nu\beta\beta$ in $^{76}$Ge-enriched detectors in the first phase of its experimental program, LEGEND-200. The LEGEND collaboration is pushing Ge detector technology to new scales. Detectors up to four times more massive than those originally deployed in previous $^{76}$Ge experiments are currently operated in LEGEND-200. Such large detectors – up to 4 kg – contribute to the isotopic mass of the experiment while retaining excellent energy resolution and background rejection capabilities. With advances in Ge crystal production, even larger detectors are envisioned, which would lead to lower backgrounds in the proposed $0\nu\beta\beta$ tonne-scale experiment, LEGEND-1000.

Speaker: David Hervas Aguilar (TUM)

picture-hervas.jpg

poster-hervas_legend_detectors.pdf

212 LArRI: a new setup for Liquid Argon Refractive index measurement

Liquid argon, widely used as the active target in neutrino and dark matter experiments, is a scintillator with a light yield of approximately 40 photons/keV. The scintillation spectrum is centered at 128 nm, and the attenuation length is of the order of meters, depending on the purity. The addition of small amounts of xenon (approximately 10 ppb) allows for shifting the scintillation peak to 178 nm, without compromising the light yield. The longer wavelength simplifies the development of imaging systems by allowing the use of dichroic filters or lenses.
A precise knowledge of its optical properties in the VUV range can be exploited to improve the performances of liquid argon-based experiments, especially when the involved mass exceeds one ton. Moreover, the refractive index becomes a crucial parameter for the development of imaging systems.
LArRI (Liquid Argon Refractive Index) aims to directly measure the refractive index of liquid Argon (as well as other cryogenic liquids) in the VUV spectrum, using an interferometric technique. In particular, the refractive index is obtained by comparing two interference patterns, created in vacuum and in liquid, acquired with cryogenic silicon photomultipliers.
In this talk we present the first results obtained, both in liquid nitrogen and in liquid argon, using a mercury lamp emitting at 254 nm and 184 nm.

Speaker: Bianca Bottino (INFN - Genova)

Picture-Bottino.jpeg

Poster-BottinoLarri.pdf

213 The Fluorescence Camera of the POEMMA-Balloon with Radio (PBR): Design and Scientific goals.

The POEMMA-Balloon with Radio (PBR) is a proposed payload to fly on a NASA Super Pressure Balloon. It will act as a pathfinder of the Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA).
PBR will consist of an innovative hybrid focal surface featuring a Fluorescence Camera (FC, based on Multi-Anode Photomultiplier Tubes (MAPMTs), 1 μs time resolution) and a Cherenkov Camera (based on SiPMs, 10 ns time resolution), both mounted on the same tiltable frame that can point from nadir up to 12° above the horizon.
The FC's main scientific goal is to observe, for the first time, the fluorescence emission of Extensive Air Showers produced by Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays from sub-orbital altitudes. This measurement will validate the detection strategy for future space-based missions, such as POEMMA. As a secondary goal, the FC will perform a search for macroscopic dark matter through slowly evolving showers that will leave a signal similar to (but distinct from) a meteor.
The PBR FC design is based on the technology developed over the last decade within the JEM-EUSO collaboration. The optical system consists of a 1.1 m aperture Schmidt telescope, the focal plane will be made of 4 Photo Detection Modules (PDMs) arranged in a 2x2 configuration. A PDM is the base of the camera of JEM-EUSO detectors, consisting of a 6x6 array of 64-channel MAPMTs, for a total of 2304 pixels per PDM. A custom ASIC will perform single photo electron counting on each pixel as well as charge integration on groups of 8 pixels to measure extremely bright and/or fast signals. The two different data acquisition modes will run in parallel and will have independent dedicated trigger logics.
PBR targets a launch in 2027 as a payload of an ultra-long duration balloon flight with a duration of up to 100 days.

Speaker: Matteo Battisti (APC - CNRS / IN2P3)

picture-Battisti_Matteo.JPG

poster-PBR_Fluorescence_Camera.pdf

Gas Detectors - Poster session

This session will be on display on Thursday morning and Friday afternoon.
Link to the contributions

ICFA Awards

Convener: Francesco Forti (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

214 Early Career Researcher Award Announcement

Speaker: Ian Shipsey (Oxford)

1.ICFA-Awards-Elba-2024-Shipsey.pdf

215 Early Career Researcher Award Talk

Let There be Light
The development of “Hybrid” Cherenkov / scintillation neutrino detectors

Speaker: Gabriel Orebi Gann

2.20240530-Elba.pdf

216 Senior Researcher Award Announcement

Speaker: Ian Shipsey (Oxford)

217 Senior Researcher Award Talk

Menzione Award

Convener: Angelo Scribano (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

218 Announcement of Menzione Award

Speakers: Angelo Scribano (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Giovanni Signorelli, Maria Giuseppina Bisogni (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Valeria Rosso (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

Premio Menzione 2024 all.pdf

219 Aldo Menizone Award Talks

13:30 Lunch break

Detector Techniques for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics - Oral session

Conveners: Jeremy Perkins (NASA/GSFC), Prof. Jocelyn Monroe (University of Oxford)

220 XENONnT Dark Matter Experiment: Recent Status and Latest Results

The XENON collaboration aims at a direct detection of dark matter. The XENONnT detector is operating since 2020 at undeground Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy, and it is currently taking data for the second science run. It is the latest and the biggest of the XENON experiment series. With an impressive 5.9 tons of liquid xenon as its active target mass, XENONnT features substantial upgrades compared to its predecessor XENON1T, enabling unprecedented purity and background reduction. This talk provides a brief overview of the different detector components, emphasizing the working principle of its dual-phase time projection chamber and highlighting the latest results delivered by the expriment.

Speaker: Marina Bazyk (Subatech)

PISA_CONF_XENON_BAZYK_PDF_May_2024last.pdf

221 Production of the DarkSide-20k photo detectors

Darkside-20k is currently under construction at the Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) by the
Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration. DarkSide-20k comprises a target mass of 50 tonnes of
low-radioactivity underground argon (UAr) in a dual phase time projection chamber (TPC),
surrounded by an instrumented inner neutron veto and outer cosmic veto. The main aim of this
detector is to search for the interaction of Dark Matter particles with the UAr target, probing
down to the neutrino fog.
Darkside-20k is designed to be instrumentally background free during the planned exposure of
200 t-yr. Towards this goal, the detector utilises novel technologies including underground Ar
depleted in the radioactive 39Ar isotope, large-area cryogenic Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM)
array photodetectors. These bespoke SiPM structures, assembled into photo detector
modules, meet the strict radiopurity, photon detection and noise requirements of DarkSide-
20k, and are employed to instrument both the TPC and veto systems. In this talk the novel
photon detector system status of DarkSide-20k will be described, with a focus on the ongoing
production of these photo detectors in Italy and the UK including the development of QA/QC
procedures to ensure optimum performance and minimise radioactivity levels

Speaker: Giovanni Rogers (University of Birmingham)

GiovanniRogers_16thPisaMeeting_v3.pdf

222 The HEPD-02 cosmic-ray experiment ready for flight on-board the CSES-02 satellite.

The High Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-02) is primarily devoted to observe fluxes of cosmic-ray electrons, protons and light nuclei, with kinetic energies in the MeV range – up to a few hundreds. HEPD-02 will be hosted on-board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite CSES-02, on a quasi-polar, low-Earth orbit; the launch is currently foreseen in December 2024.
The CSES mission, coordinated by China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Italian Space Agency (ASI), aims at developing a series of satellites for studying the near-Earth environment, by means of electromagnetic, ionospheric, magnetospheric and cosmic-ray observations. The first High Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-01) has been launched in 2018 with the CSES-01 satellite.
HEPD-02 is a state-of-the-art instrument for the identification of various particle species, measuring their energy and arrival direction. Several improvements were applied with respect to HEPD-01, in an effort to optimize the measurement quality, while satisfying multiple requirements for on-satellite operation: size, weight, power and data bandwidth limitations, mechanical robustness, operation between -10 °C and +35 °C in high vacuum, compatibility with radiation effects, adequate failure mitigation to guarantee at least 6 years of in-flight operation.
The core of HEPD-02 is a tower of superposed plastic and crystal scintillator layers, surrounded by containment planes on lateral and bottom sides, all read-out by PMTs for acquisition triggering and measuring particle energy and range. On the top part of the tower, a tracking system with monolithic active pixel sensors (MAPS) constitutes the first ever satellite application of this technology.
Technical tests have been performed according to space qualification requirements, in particular to assess immunity from mechanical stresses at launch, operation in expected temperature/pressure environment and electromagnetic compatibility with satellite instrumentation. Beam tests have been executed to evaluate scientific performances with different particle species and energies.

Speaker: Sergio Bruno Ricciarini (IFAC - CNR)

PM2024_Ricciarini_v3.pdf

223 The Compton Pair prototypes: A next-generation MeV gamma-ray observatory

The Compton Pair (ComPair) telescope 1 is a prototype that aims to develop the necessary technologies for future medium energy gamma-ray missions, and was designed, built, and tested in a gamma-ray beam and balloon flight. ComPair 1 consists of 4 detector subsystems: a double-sided silicon strip detector (DSSD) Tracker, a novel high-resolution Frisch-grid cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) Calorimeter, and a high-energy hodoscopic cesium iodide (CsI) Calorimeter, all of which are surrounded by a plastic scintillator anti-coincidence detector (ACD). These subsystems together detect and characterize photons via Compton scattering and pair production, enable a veto of cosmic rays. The ComPair team is now developing an upgraded protype, ComPair 2, with increased sensitivity and low-energy transient capabilities. These advancements will be enabled by replacing the DSSDs with silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor monolithic Active Pixel Sensors, AstroPix. ComPair 2 consits of a tracker with AstroPix sensors and a CsI calorimeter. The ComPair 1 and 2 subsystems are a proof-of-concept for a space telescope with the same architecture that will address many questions on multi-wavelength and multi-messenger science themes. In this presentation we will give an overview and updates the ComPair 1 and 2 prototypes, and steps forward.

Speaker: Janeth Valverde (UMBC / NASA GSFC)

ComPair_Pisa2024.pdf

224 Si-microstrip LGAD detectors for cosmic-ray space-borne instruments

In the context of the PTSD project, we are currently developing a demonstrator to increase the Technological Readiness Level of LGAD Si-microstrip tracking detectors. Low Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGAD) is a consolidated technology developed for particle detectors at colliders which allows for simultaneous and accurate time (<100 ps) and position (~ 10 µm) resolutions with segmented Si sensors. It is a candidate technology that could enable for the first time 5D tracking (position, charge, and time) in space using LGAD Si-microstrip tracking systems. The intrinsic gain of LGAD sensors may also allow to decrease the sensor thickness while achieving signal yields similar to those of Si-microstrips currently operated in Space.

In this contribution we discuss the possible applications and breakthrough opportunities in next generation large area cosmic-ray detectors and sub-GeV gamma-ray detectors that could be enabled by LGAD Si-microstrip tracking detectors in Space. We are currently developing a demonstrator to increase the Technological Readiness Level of LGAD Si-microstrip tracking detectors. We also propose the design of a cost-effective instrument to be deployed on a CubeSat platform to enable and qualify the operations of LGAD Si-microstrip detectors in Space.

Speaker: Valerio Vagelli (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana)

Vagelli_PM2024_PTSD.pdf

17:10 Coffee break

225 SiPM-based Gamma-Ray Detectors of GECAM

The Gravitational Wave High-Energy Electromagnetic Counterparts All-sky Monitor (GECAM) is a space mission dedicated to detecting gamma-ray bursts associated with gravitational wave events and various cosmic phenomena. GECAM consists of several satellites, with three currently in orbit and a fourth scheduled for launch in 2024. GECAM has yielded numerous scientific discoveries, including the observation of the most intense gamma-ray burst recorded to date. SiPM-based compact detectors are a critical component of GECAM, representing the first extensive application of SiPM technology in a spaceborne gamma-ray scientific satellite. This report will initially present the status of GECAM and the achieved observational results. It will then concentrate on the detector's design, in-flight performance, irradiation damage to SiPMs and mitigation strategies, as well as outline future plans.

Speaker: Xilei Sun (Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS)

SiPM-based Gamma-Ray Detectors of GECAM.pptx

226 The new KM3NeT Detection Units

KM3NeT is a distributed, deep-sea, Cherenkov neutrino observatory under realization in the Mediterranean Sea with two detectors: ARCA, for neutrino astronomy close to Italy, and ORCA, for studying the neutrino oscillations close to France. Each detector is made of a large tridimensional array of optical modules, connected and controlled from a remote shore-station. Each optical module is a submarine node of an extended ethernet network, comprising the onshore computing resources for the online collection and filtering of the acquired data. The data acquisition system follows the trigger-less streaming readout paradigm, with a modular and scalable design which allowed the KM3NeT Collaboration to take data since the very first stages of installation. After the first phase of construction, we improved the connectivity of the optical modules, by adding new layers of data aggregation directly at the detector. This was achieved by means of White Rabbit switches with a readapted form-factor, fitting the KM3NeT underwater vessels. We refer to them as “Wet” White Rabbit switches, in relation to their “Dry” counterparts, in the shore-stations.
Wet and Dry White Rabbit switch-fabrics allow also to distribute the timing to the optical modules with the required nanosecond accuracy, according to the standard White Rabbit protocol developed at CERN. In this presentation we review the evolution of the KM3NeT Detection Units, focusing on the recent changes in the architecture, manufacturing and testing processes.

Speaker: Carlos Maximiliano Mollo (INFN - Napoli)

KM3NeT_NDU_CMMOLLO_PM.pdf

227 The Design and Construction of the Central Detector of JUNO

Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a large-scale neutrino experiment with multiple physics goals including neutrino mass hierarchy, accurate measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters, neutrino detection from supernova, sun, and earth, etc. JUNO puts forward physically and technologically stringent requirements for its central detector (CD), including large volume of 20 kt liquid scintillator (LS), 3% energy resolution at 1 MeV, high enough scintillation light transmittance, large possible PMT coverage, low radioactive background, etc. At beginning of the detector feasibility design, the CD was designed with a variety option of schemes. At the end after many iterations, the scheme of a spherical acrylic vessel with stainless steel structure was chosen and its detailed design was optimized with manufacture prototyping and measurements. The key technologies of acrylic sphere have been successfully developed, such as low radioactivity and high transmittance manufacturing technology of acrylic panels, tensile and compressive acrylic node design with embedded stainless steel pad for supporting rod, the one-time polymerization and annealing for multiple and long bonding lines between acrylic panels, etc. Many technical challenges of stainless steel structure were solved, such as low radioactive stainless steel material, deformation and precision control, high strength stainless steel rivet bolt, high friction efficient linkage plate, and so on. The design and construction of the CD of JUNO will be introduced.

Speaker: Yuekun Heng (Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS)

JUNO CD design and construction @ 2024 PISA meeting.pdf

228 Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter Searches with the KATRIN Experiment

Sterile neutrinos are a natural extension of the Standard Model of
particle physics. If their mass is in the keV range, they are a viable
dark matter candidate. One way to search for sterile neutrinos in
a laboratory-based experiment is via tritium beta decay. A sterile
neutrino with a mass up to 18.6 keV would manifest itself in the decay
spectrum as a kink-like distortion. The objective of the TRISTAN
project is to extend the KATRIN experiment with a novel multi-pixel
silicon drift detector and readout system to search for a keV-scale
sterile neutrino signal. This talk will give an overview on the current
status of the project with an emphasis on the detector performance.
Characterization measurement results obtained with a 166-pixel
system will be shown.

This work is supported by BMBF (05A17PM3, 05A17PX3,
05A17VK2, 05A17WO3), KSETA, the Max Planck society, and
the Helmholtz Association. This project has received funding from
the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement
No. 852845).

Speaker: Frank Edzards (Technical University of Munich)

16th_Pisa_Meeting_Edzards_Sterile.pptx

229 RES-NOVA: a mK calorimeter with archaeological Pb for SN neutrinos detection

The RES-NOVA project will directly detect neutrinos from core-collapse supernovae (SN) via coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEνNS) using an array of archaeological lead (Pb) based low temperature calorimeters. To enhance the detection cross-section, archaeological kg-scale Pb based crystals will be used, to achieve the highest cross section for CEνNS with the unique ultra-high radiopurity of archaeological Pb needed for its detection. RES-NOVA will operate as a highly sensitive neutrino observatory with the unique feature of being equally sensitive to all neutrino flavors. The first phase of the RES-NOVA project is planning to operate a demonstrator detector with a total active volume of (30 cm)$^3$. It will be sensitive to SN bursts from the entire Milky Way Galaxy with >3σ sensitivity, while running PbWO$_4$ detectors with 1 keV energy threshold. RES-NOVA will discriminate core-collapse SNe from black-holes forming collapses with no ambiguity even with such small volume detector. The main SN parameters can potentially be constrained with a precision of few % while looking at $\nu_{\mu/\tau}/\overline{\nu}_{\mu/\tau}$. We will present the performance of the first prototype detectors, and sensitivity projections for the full detector. In this contribution we will show that RES-NOVA has the potential to lay the foundations for a new generation of neutrino observatories, while relying on a very simple and modular experimental setup. The very first 1 kg-scale crystal was measured at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso

Speaker: Andrei Puiu (INFN - LNGS)

resnova_andrei.pdf

Electronics and On-Detector Processing - Poster session

This session will be on display on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning
Link to the contributions

Low Temperature, Quantum and Emerging Technologies - Poster Session

This session will be on display on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning
Link to the contributions

230 BULLKID: Array of particle absorbers sensed by Kinetic Inductance Detectors

We present BULLKID, a project aiming to deliver a scalable cryogenic detector for coherent neutrino nucleus scattering and low-mass Dark Matter direct detection.
The device consists of an array of silicon targets sensed by multiplexed Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs).
The prototype we present is made of 64 cubic voxels of 5.4 × 5.4 × 5 mm3 each carved out of a 5 mm thick 3” silicon wafer.
The carvings leave intact a 0.5 mm thick common disk acting as a holder for the dices and as substrate for the KID structures.
The resulting array is monolithic and highly segmented in order to avoid individual holding structures that may generate backgrounds.
The above ground unshielded operation of this prototype has led to the characterization of a background level of 2·10^6 counts/(kev·kg·day) flat down to an energy threshold of 160 eV.
We present the status of the project and its furure developement towards an improvement in terms of threshold and active volume of the detector.

Speaker: Daniele Delicato (INFN - Roma 1)

picture-delicato.png

POSTER_BULLKID_PISA24.pdf

231 Design of Mode Matching Telescope in Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen(EPR) Experiment for Gravitational Wave Detection

The EPR Experiment aims to demonstrate alternative Frequency-Dependent Squeezing (FDS) for reducing broadband quantum noise in gravitational wave detectors. We designed two reflective mode-matching telescopes (MMT) for an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) squeezing experiment. It can provide high mode matching for EPR entangled squeezed light. To ensure precise alignment and reproducibility of the MMT, we placed optomechanics on a base plate with a reference plane. Beam profiling results and pre-simulated alignment process calculate the misalignment compensation length.

Speaker: Sumin Lee (Kyung Hee University)

Poster_Suminlee_0520.pdf

Sumin Lee_Photo.jpg

232 Understanding Dark Counts in Superconducting Transition-Edge Sensors

Superconducting Transition-Edge Sensors (TESs) are promising detectors for experiments searching for rare signal events thanks to their high efficiency and extremely low dark count rates. To further enhance their sensitivity, it is essential to investigate the origins of these dark counts, a topic that has not been extensively studied. We found that the primary sources of dark counts in optical TESs are external in nature, with cosmic rays being the primary contributor.
We present various techniques for measuring the rates and characterizing the sources of dark counts. Additionally, we introduce new techniques for automated pulse shape discrimination using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Through these methods, we categorize TES dark counts into three event types: photon-like events, high-energy events, and electrical noise events. By discriminating for photon-like events, we achieve an effective dark count rate around 360 μHz. This represents a reduction by a factor of 48 when compared to pre-discrimination levels.
We also investigate the sources of each type of event, attributing high-energy events to energy depositions in the substrate, photon-like events to photon absorption in the TES, and electrical noise events to the readout electronics. Our ability to discriminate high-energy events and attribute them to energy depositions in the substrate also opens the door for optical TESs to be used as sensitive radiation detectors for gamma rays and charged particles, broadening the range of applications for this type of sensor.

Speaker: Isaac Sarnoff (New York University Abu Dhabi)

picture-sarnoff.jpeg

poster-TES-darkcounts.pdf

233 A SQUID controller unit for space-based applications: design and first performance tests

The LiteBIRD mission, to be launched in 2032, will map the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) with unprecedented resolution, to search for the tiny imprints of cosmological inflation. Its sensitivity corresponds to exploring energy scales up to 10^{16} GeV, linking the physics of inflation with that of Grand Unification of elementary forces.
To accomplish this task, LiteBIRD will use more than 4000 transition-edge sensors (TESs) destributed over three telescopes. Those cryogenic devices, living at 120 mK, will be multiplexed in frequency-domain, each group of 60s read out by a single SQUID placed at a sub-Kelvin stage.
This work presents the design and tests of the SQUID controller unit (SCU), to be used in this space mission, which fall under the responsibility of INFN groups. The unit is made of 8 boards and each board can condition four SQUID array amplifiers. The electronics boards (SCA) are designed to host space qualified components and encompass a redundancy circuitery as well as a lightweight communication protocol. The boards are hosted in a custom designed crate, providing mechanical support, EMI shielding and thermal interface to dissipate the electronics heat.
An advanced version of the board has been coupled to a dilution fridge at McGill University (Canada) and tested with a SQUID reading out a representative cryogenic electronic chain, comprised of resistors coupled to custom LC filters. Its noise performance has been measured to be compatible with the mission requirements and consistent with previous generation used in ground-based CMB telescope readout.
We will present the tests performed and those that are foreseen for its flight qualification, together with thermo-mechanical simulations.

Speaker: Paolo Dal Bo (Università di Pisa / INFN)

picture-A SQUID controller unit for space-based applications-PaoloDalBo.jpeg

poster-A SQUID controller unit for space-based applications.pdf

234 LANTERN: A novel characterization technology for cryogenic detectors

Current advancements in low-energy rare-event searches rely on cryogenic calorimeters, commonly used for the direct detection of dark matter or neutrinos. These detectors provide a low-noise environment but face challenges in characterizing responses within the region of interest (ROI). Developed for probing energies from O(10eV) to O(1keV), these detectors encounter issues when calibrating with commonly available radioactive sources since these produce signals at energies above the ROI, affected by non-linearities and saturations, and cannot be removed during data-taking.

To overcome these limitations, a novel calibration procedure is required to better understand detector characteristics. LANTERN is an innovative optical calibration system designed for the characterization of an array of cryogenic calorimiteres. LANTERN exploits the photostatistics generated by the absorption of monochromatic photons produced by a LED, without requiring to know of the total energy deposited. This system is composed by a LED matrix, designed for fast switching times (faster than the typical response of cryogenic detectors), capable of characterizing up to 64 calorimeters independently.

LANTERN can produce particle-like signals across a wide energy range, from a few eV to several hundreds of keV, allowing for a complete characterization of an array of detectors within the ROI and studies like cross-talk and pixel identification. Furthermore, its minimal electronics and optics contribute to cost-effectiveness and ease of production, with the possibility of customization to meet specific requirements (wavelength, energy range, speed and number of channels). Moreover LANTERN, being electronically activated, can remain present during data-taking, allowing periodic validation of detector performance without introducing unnecessary background.

These features make LANTERN an ideal system to be used with segmented calorimeters operated in low background setups to fully understand their response, thus exploiting their full potential. LANTERN aims to replace the systems employed by the BULLKID and NUCLEUS experiments, that present severe scalability and customization limitations.

Speaker: Giorgio Del Castello (INFN - Roma 1)

picture-DelCastello.jpeg

poster-LANTERN.pdf

235 Development of nanocomposite scintillators for use in high-energy physics

Semiconductor nanocrystals (“quantum dots”) are light emitters with high quantum yield that are relatively easy to manufacture. There is therefore much interest in their possible application for the development of high-performance scintillators for use in high-energy physics. Nanocomposite scintillators can be obtained by casting nanocrystals into a transparent polymer matrix, to obtain materials functionally similar to conventional plastic scintillators. Since inorganic nanocrystals can potentially have O(100 ps) light decay times and O(1 MGy) radiation resistance, nanocomposite scintillators could prove to be ideal for the construction of high-performance detectors that are economical enough to be used for large-volume applications. However, few previous studies have focused on the response of these materials to high-energy particles. To evaluate the potential for the use of nanocomposite scintillators in calorimetry, we are performing side-by-side tests of fine-sampling shashlyk calorimeter prototypes with both conventional and nanocomposite scintillators using electron and minimum-ionizing particle beams, allowing the performance gains obtained from the use of NC scintillators to be directly measured.

Speaker: Dr Stefano Carsi (Università degli Studi dell'Insubria)

poster 2.pdf

236 Assessing the noise level of quantum-limited parametric amplifiers

Cryogenic microwave technology is a rapidly growing field of business, driven by the boom of Quantum Computing (QC) and other Quantum Technologies (QT), but also with wide applications in reading out cryogenic particle detectors. Superconducting parametric amplifiers play a relevant role in reading out both superconducting qubits and low temperature particle detectors. These devices offer the incredible opportunity to amplify feeble microwave signals while adding noise at the minimum level allowed by quantum mechanics. In order to characterize this fundamental property of these amplifiers, a proper custom setup needs to be designed and realized. One of the goals of the project CalQuStates, carried out in collaboration between INRiM and Università di Milano – Bicocca, aims to develop a testbed to measure the noise of superconducting parametric amplifiers in a cryogenic environment. The setup which is being developed by the unit of Milano – Bicocca consists in a 50 Ohm load to be linked to the coldest stage of a dilution refrigerator. While the latter is required to remain at its base temperature around a few millikelvin, the load needs to span temperatures up to 1 K with high thermal stability, posing a technical challenge. This development will allow to perform the noise measurement of low temperature amplifiers exploiting the Y-method.
In this contribution the status of the development of this setup, along with its technological challenges, prospects and applications will be presented.

Speaker: Marco Faverzani (Università di Milano Bicocca / INFN)

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poster_CalQuStates.pdf

237 A 350GHz array of LEKIDs for balloon-borne CMB observations

We present the design, optimization and laboratory characterization of an array of Lumped Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors sensitive in a frequency band centered at 350 GHz. The array consists of 313 feed-horn coupled pixels with resonant frequencies spread over 250 MHz. We present measured yield, quality factor, responsivity, quasiparticle lifetime, noise equivalent power and optical efficiency. The array is a prototype for one of the four frequency bands of OLIMPO, a balloon-borne instrument with a 2.6 meter primary mirror proposed for an Antarctic flight to measure the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect in clusters of galaxies. Similar arrays could also be used with instruments studying the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation.

Speaker: Federico Cacciotti (Università di Roma / INFN)

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_PM2024__poster_v2.pdf

238 Vibration tests on the CryoAC Detector assembly for the X-IFU Athena X-ray observatory

We present an extension on vibration analysis of the 50 mK Cryogenic focal plane Anti-Coincidence (CryoAC) detector designed for the X-IFU Athena X-ray observatory. The detector is composed of a silicon suspended absorber coupled with a few Ir/Au Transition Edge Sensors (TES) linked via silicon bridges to a gold-plated silicon frame (rim). The detector was fabricated through Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) from a single 500 μm silicon wafer. The final geometry will have a segmented structure with four distinct absorbers. To ensure mechanical resilience for space missions, we conducted tests that involved vibrating the entire detector assembly, including the hexagonal silicon chip, its mounting bracket with thermal bondings, and the cold front-end electronic PCB with signal bondings. We replicated vibrations performed on single chips using SRON's vibrational mask, which included both in-plane and out-of-plane excitations. This provided comprehensive insights into the mechanical behavior of the detector under various conditions. The extension not only validated the mechanical response but also provided valuable data for optimizing detector design and assembly for spaceborne applications.

Speaker: Lorenzo Ferrari Barusso (Università di Genova / INFN)

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pisameeting2024-poster_FerrariBarusso.pdf

239 Production of the first 163Ho implanted micro-calorimeters for the HOLMES experiment.

The HOLMES experiment seeks to directly assess the neutrino mass by investigating the electron capture decay spectrum of $^{163}$Ho. This involves developing arrays of micro-calorimeters based on Transition Edge Sensor (TES) technology, each implanted with approximately $10^2$ Bq/detector of $^{163}$Ho atoms.

To incorporate the $^{163}$Ho source into the detector while simultaneously eliminating contaminants from other isotopes, a dedicated implantation/beam analysis system has been developed and commissioned at Genoa's laboratory. Following an extensive series of tests and calibration, the commissioning process concluded in 2023, enabling the implantation of a first set of arrays with an anticipated activity of about 1 Bq/detector.

Presently, the ion implanter is being upgraded, including the addition of a focusing stage, an x-y scanning magnet, and a co-evaporation chamber. This upgrade is expected to improve the beam shape and increase the achievable implanted activity in the detector. This paper will detail the machine commissioning, present the results from the implantation runs, and discuss the enhancements in the implanter's performance following the upgrade.

Speaker: Matteo De Gerone (INFN - Genova)

picture_degerone.jpg

PM_degerone_HOLMES_implanter.pdf

240 Bulk Acoustic Wave cavities for high-frequency gravitational wave antennas

High-frequency gravitational wave (GW) detection based on a cryogenic bulk acoustic wave (BAW) cavity coupled to a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) has been under investigation at the University of Western Australia for several years. A recent paper reported the observation of rare events of uncertain origin using the first antenna of this type. In this report, we describe the work towards the construction of a similar GW antenna at the University of Milano Bicocca, including the characterisation of commercially available BAWs and plans to tailor the BAWs to sample multiple frequencies from about 0.5 MHz to a few tens of 1 MHz. Potential GW sources in this range include scenarios involving dark matter candidates such as primordial black hole binaries and axion-black hole interactions.

Speaker: Marco Faverzani (Università di Milano Bicocca / INFN)

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poster_baw.pdf

241 Determination of the Absolute Neutrino Mass with Quantum Technologies

The Quantum Technologies for Neutrino Mass (QTNM) is a UK-based neutrino mass measurement experiment which aims to leverage advances in quantum technology to develop a new experimental apparatus to determine the absolute neutrino mass.

The neutrino is the most abundant massive particle in the universe, and yet we do not know what its mass is. Measuring it — the last unknown mass(es) in the Standard Model of Particle Physics — will not only give insight into the neutrino mass mechanism, but also impact our understanding of the early universe. Sensitivity to neutrino masses in the 10meV/c^2 regime is well motivated by neutrino oscillation measurements, but is out of reach of the current state-of-the-art technology. A forward looking experimental programme incorporating recent technological advances will help us to reach this ambitious goal.

QTNM will use Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES) to measure the beta-decay spectrum of atomic tritium, and hence perform an absolute neutrino mass measurement. The first demonstrator apparatus (CRESDA) pulls together cutting edge technologies: atomic magnetometry, atomic source production and containment, high frequency signal collection and quantum-limited microwave amplifiers

This presentation will give an overview of QTNM, detailing the current status of the proposed detector technologies, forthcoming measurement plans and future experimental outlook.

Speaker: Daniel Swinnock (University of Warwick)

picture - dswinnock.jpg

poster-QTNM Pisa DSwinnock.pdf

242 Measuring the electric dipole moment of the electron using polar molecules in a parahydrogen matrix

The electron electric dipole moment (eEDM) is a sensitive probe to investigate new physics beyond the Standard Model. We propose a novel experimental method to measure the eEDM using polar molecules (BaF) embedded in a cryogenic matrix of parahydrogen. This approach could improve the current eEDM limits, offering valuable insights into CP violation sources and the origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. Additionally, the experiment may indirectly shed light on the nature of dark matter as many extensions of the Standard Model that account for dark matter predict an eEDM within the sensitivity range of our experiment.
Our experimental strategy consists of aligning BaF molecules with an external electric field and then measuring the electron spin precession frequency in a magnetic field for two opposing electric field orientations. We employ laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy and microwave techniques to determine the precession frequencies. Any difference in frequency between the two configurations would indicate a non-zero eEDM.
The principal advantage of our approach is that the parahydrogen matrix is expected to increase the spin coherence time of BaF molecules by reducing the environmental disturbances that cause decoherence. In addition, our approach leverages the large internal molecular field available in BaF molecules and the efficient cooling and large concentrations of molecules enabled by the parahydrogen matrix.
We will discuss the experimental setup we developed to produce parahydrogen and grow cryogenic crystals alongside the necessary steps for creating and integrating BaF molecules into these matrices.

Speaker: Giuseppe Messineo (INFN - Padova)

picture-Messineo.jpg

poster-Messineo.pdf

243 Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen conditional squeezing for next generation Gravitational-Wave detectors

The dawn of Gravitational-wave (GW) astronomy is dated September 14th, 2015, with the first direct detection of a GW signal through long-baseline Michelson-Fabry-Perot interferometers. Among the noise sources affecting these GW detectors, Quantum Noise is present in their whole bandwidth (10 Hz – 10 kHz).
In the current scientific run named O4, the GW advanced detectors LIGO and Virgo attain broadband Quantum Noise reduction via frequency-dependent squeezed states of light. They are generated through a system which includes an about 300m-long detuned filter cavity, coupled to the interferometer. However, this required additional infrastructure work and maintenance, and it increases the optical losses by at least 50 ppm for each round-trip inside the filter cavity.
In the Advanced Virgo detector site, we are working on a table-top prototype to probe an alternative strategy for broadband Quantum Noise reduction based on two-mode Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) entangled squeezed light. In principle, this novel scheme works without the presence of any external cavity in the detector. The EPR-entangled beams will propagate in a small-scale suspended interferometer with high-finesse arm-cavities. This proof-of-principle experiment aims at a future integration of the EPR technique in GW detectors, being the first to validate it at audio frequencies, suited for GW detection. Before experimental proofs, simulations are required to support the validity of the chosen setup and to evaluate the sensitivity improvement brought by the EPR scheme in GW detectors.
An EPR squeezer would represent a cheaper, more compact and more flexible alternative than the current scheme, especially in consideration of further upgrades of Advanced Virgo, and of future detectors, such as the Einstein Telescope.
The talk proposed here illustrates the most recent advancements concerning the EPR experiment, both in laboratory implementation and in software simulations.

Speaker: Francesco De Marco (Università di Roma / INFN)

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poster-DeMarco_202.pdf

Friday, 31 May

Gas Detectors - Oral session

Conveners: Anna Colaleo (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Eraldo Oliveri (CERN)

244 ATLAS New Small Wheel Performance Studies with 2023 (LHC Run3) data

Following the successful completion of Phase I upgrades during LHC Long Shutdown 2, the ATLAS detector has been operational since 2022 with various implemented upgrades. The most important and challenging upgrade is in the Muon Spectrometer, where the replacement of the two inner forward muon stations with the New Small Wheels (NSW) system introduces two novel detector technologies: small strip Thin Gap Chambers (sTGC) and resistive strips Micromegas (MM).
The installation and integration of the two NSW endcaps in ATLAS for LHC-Run3 data collection marks the culmination of extensive construction, testing, and installation efforts. The NSW actively contribute to the muon spectrometer tracking and trigger systems, concurrently finalizing the commissioning phase of this innovative system.
Substantial work has been invested in the operation of the new data acquisition system, as well as the implementation of a new processing chain within the muon software framework.
The new detectors are fully integrated into the ATLAS trigger, reconstruction and simulation software. Tracking is being optimized taking in consideration the alignment of each individual detector module by the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer optical alignment system and the deviations from the nominal geometry of all the constituent elements of each module.
This presentation will offer an overview of the strategies employed for simulations, reconstruction, and optimization, followed by a detailed report on the performance studies of the NSW system during its initial operation with LHC Run3 data.

Speaker: Stefano Rosati (INFN - Roma 1)

atlas_nsw_pisa24.pdf

245 Experience with the Triple-GEM detectors at the LHC CMS experiment

To improve the muon tracking and triggering capability of the most forward part of its muon spectrometer CMS has decided to install, for the High Luminosity LHC, three stations of large (> 1 m long) Triple-GEM detectors. These stations are named GE1/1, GE2/1 and ME0, respectively. While GE1/1 and GE2/1 will work jointly with the existing CMS Cathode Strip Chambers (CSC) in the pseudo-rapidity range 1.6 < |h| < 2.4, ME0 will extend the pseudo-rapidity coverage of the CMS muon system up to 2.8.

GE1/1 was installed within CMS in 2020 and is successfully recording LHC data since July 2022. GE1/1 consists in 72 Super-Chambers, each made of two large back-to-back Triple-GEM detectors. The installation of GE2/1, almost twice larger than GE1/1 is starting at the end of 2023 and will proceed during the successive LHC end-year technical stops. ME0, which is embedded within the new CMS forward calorimeter, will be installed in 2027.

In this contribution we will present the experience and latest results of the brand new GE1/1 system: the detector performance in the LHC environment (including the 2023 LHC Heavy Ion run), the stability of the system, and the lessons learned which impacted the design of GE2/1 and ME0 systems. We will also review the status of the production of GE2/1 and ME0.

Being the unique muon station at |h| > 2.4, ME0 will be made of 6 layers of Triple-GEM detectors, which will operate with background particle fluxes ranging from 3 to 150 kHz/cm2. Both the maximum background rate and the large range of flux set new challenges to the technology. The final results from the ME0 R&D program will also be presented

Speaker: Archana Sharma (CERN)

Elba+-+ASharma+-+May+2024.pptx

246 Improved Resistive Plate Chambers for Phase-II upgrade of the CMS detector at LHC

In anticipation of the High Luminosity LHC, an extensive upgrade is underway for the CMS Muon system to ensure its optimal performance in muon triggering and reconstruction. The indispensable role of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) as dedicated muon detectors stems from their exceptional timing resolution. To meet the requirements of Phase-II of the LHC, the RPC system will be expanded up to 2.4 in pseudorapidity. The forward Muon system's upcoming RE3/1 and RE4/1 stations will feature improved Resistive Plate Chambers (iRPC). Distinguished by a unique design and geometry, including a 2D strip readout, these iRPCs represent a significant advancement over the current RPC system. The enhancements include the use of thinner electrodes, a narrower 1.4 mm gas gap, and improved Front-End electronics (FEB) allowing a 30 fC threshold. Two iRPC chambers were installed in station 3 of CMS during the year-end technical stop 2023/2024. This talk provides a comprehensive summary of the iRPC project, showcasing recent results, including space and timing resolutions.

Speaker: Joao Pedro Gomes Pinheiro (Rio de Janeiro State University)

RPC2024PisaMeetings_Joaov3-2.pdf

RPC2024PisaMeetings_Joaov3.pptx

247 Development of high performance μRGroove detectors

We will present a new type of MPGD: micro-resistive groove (μRGroove). The μRGroove is a single-stage MPGD, it has the similar stack structure with μRWELL but a groove amplification pattern. The μRGroove is almost compatible with all the techniques developed for μRWELL, for example, it can be directly make the PEP fast grounding lines for high rate applications and the dead area is less than 2%. Benefit from the groove structures, the coper strips on top of groove can be directly used as the readout strips on one direction. By adding readout strips on the other direction under the bottom of groove, we can get a decoupled 2D readout strips without any charge-sharing problem. This kind of readout is able to provide much larger induce signal than the MPGDs using COMPASS readout when they have the same effective gas gain. In the application of large area tracking, low-capacitance design can be easily implemented into these decoupled readout strips to achieve higher S/N and improve the performance of the tracking system. Two 10cm×10cm μRGroove prototypes have already been produced and tested. Compared to μRWELL with the same size, the manufacture process of μRGroove is much simpler thus the cost is much lower，and it is very easy to clean due to the quite open groove-structures. The test of these prototypes show they are able to stably work at >10e4 gas gain for a long time and the spatial resolution of them are better than 90μm. New prototypes are now being produced in CERN PCB workshop, include a large size (50cm×50cm) μRGroove with 2D decoupled readout strips, and two cylindrical μRGroove demonstrators for Super Tau Charm Facility (STCF) inner tracker. The progress of these detectors will also be presented.

Speaker: Siqi He (University of Science and Technology of China)

Pisameeting_Siqi_development of high performance μRGroove detectors.pptx

248 The micro-RWELL for future HEP challenges

The challenges posed by the forthcoming High-Energy Physics experiments, necessitate the development of particle detection technologies that are easily engineered and compatible with industrial-scale production. The micro-RWELL, a single-amplification stage resistive MPGD based on sequential build-up technology, effectively meets these demands. In this contribution, we provide an overview of the detector characteristics, outlining the design and testing steps conducted at INFN-LNF. Additionally, we offer a schematic description of the construction processes performed at the ELTOS Company and CERN MPT Workshop.
The experience detailed in this contribution indicates that a significant portion of the detector construction can be effectively carried out by the industry, providing substantial advantages in terms of production time and cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, it is crucial to highlight the significant effort invested in the production of large DLC (Diamond-Like-carbon) foils, a fundamental component of the detector amplification stage. The acquisition of the DC-magnetron sputtering machine, a fruitful joint venture between CERN and INFN, represents a crucial development, allowing a remarkable advancement in this technology.
The results of the tests carried out with an X-ray gun at LNF and particle beams at the CERN North Area beam facility are then discussed in detail. Preliminary outcomes of the co-production pilot test performed in 2023 are summarized, indicating a production yield of approximately 90%. The fruitful experience gained in this phase of the technology transfer is a first step towards the construction of larger detectors, as envisaged for the forthcoming challenges in HEP.

Speaker: Dr Giovanni Bencivenni (INFN - LNF)

The micro-RWELL for future HEP challenges - PISAMEETING - ID 160 - BENCIVENNI 5.pdf

10:10 Coffee break

249 The new TPCs based on Resistive MicroMegas for the Upgraded Near Detector of the T2K Experiment

In order to accurately establish leptonic CP-violation the T2K collaboration planned to upgrade both the neutrino beam line, by doubling its intensity and the ND280 Near Detector, for collecting neutrino interactions within full phase-space acceptance. The innovative concept of this neutrino detection system consists in combining a fine-grained fully active target (Super-Fine-Grained Detector) with 2 large volume Time Projection Chambers, rectangular in shape (High Angle TPC, HATPC) and 6 TOF planes. The detectors were assembled and commissioned at CERN and J-PARC and recently installed and integrated with legacy ND280 detectors at JPARC.

In this talk I will report about the building, assembling and characterization of the two TPCs at CERN and about their Installation and Commissioning of at JPARC with cosmic rays and neutrino interactions during a Tecnical Run in December 2023. The characterization of the TPC within Magnetic field in terms of energy resolution and particle identification performances and in terms of space resolution and momentum measurement will be illustrated. Early results with neutrino beam for Physics, to be delivered at JPARC in February 2024 will be also reported

Speaker: Gianmaria Collazuol (INFN - Padova)

Elba2024 - HATPC - 20240531 - v10.pdf

250 PICOSEC-Micromegas Detector, an innovative solution for Lepton Time Tagging

The PICOSEC-Micromegas (PICOSEC-MM) detector is a novel gaseous detector aiming to offer precise timing resolution in experimental measurements. The main idea is to eliminate the time jitter produced by charged particles in ionization gaps by exploiting extreme UV Cherenkov light emitted in a crystal, which is then detected by Micromegas photodetector using an appropriate photocathode. The proof of concept of such detectors was achieved by single-channel prototypes, in muon beams of 150$\,$GeV/c, resulting on a timing resolution of 25$\,$ps, a performance surpassing by two orders of magnitude the best resolution reached by gaseous detectors. Using the PICOSEC-MM detector in experimental measurements of high-energy physics means being able to build robust and efficient prototypes together with a modular design. In this work, we are identifying and investigating the necessary specifications for an application of such detectors in monitored neutrino beams, of the ENUBET (Enhanced Neutrino Beams from Kaon Tagging) Project. Key aspects investigated in this study, include the search for different resistive technologies and resilient photocathodes, addressing technological challenges, and developing scalable front-end/back-end electronics. To withstand the high particle flux environment, new 7-pad resistive detectors have been designed. In this project, two potential scenarios are being considered for and an innovative solution on lepton time tagging. Tagging electromagnetic showers with a timing resolution below 30$\,$ps (embedded in an electromagnetic calorimeter as a T0 layer) or individual particles with a timing resolution of 20$\,$ps (embedded in the hadron damp after a few radiation lengths of absorber for muon monitoring). Commissioning and testing of these two scenarios will be described.

Speaker: Alexandra Kallitsopoulou (CEA / IRFU / Université Paris-Saclay)

Pisa2024_Picosec_Kallitsopoulou(1).pptx

251 Micromegas detectors at Saclay : present and future experiments

The MPGD team at CEA Saclay has been involved in designing, producing, validating, and, operating Micromegas detectors for the current and next generation of experiments in many different domains of physics. The detectors are now operating in the largest physics experiments including ATLAS-NSW at CERN, CLAS12 at Jefferson lab, and, sPHENIX at BNL. Early results and status of Micromegas in the US will be given before the introduction of the next generation of detectors for the P2 experiment at Mainz and for the ePIC experiment at the EIC at BNL.

These future experiments pose new challenges in term of rate, material budget, and, production. These aspects are being studied with “RD4” prototypes fully characterized in the lab and at the 2023 test beam at MAMI in Mainz. Results of this R&D will be shown with a focus on cylindrical 2D readout for the EIC and light Micromegas, the “sail tracker”, for the P2 experiment. Feedback of the operation of these detectors with different electronics such as DREAM, VMM, and SAMPA, will be provided. To conclude, an overview of the R&D made at Saclay on Micromegas including transparent MPGD that will shine a light on possible futures of the Micromegas technology.

Speaker: Maxence Vandenbroucke (CEA Saclay)

2024_05_PISA_Micromegas_Vandenbroucke.pptx

252 Towards more eco-friendly gaseous detectors

In the last years, the particle detector community faced a new challenge: how to convert existing and future gaseous detectors in more eco-friendly ones. Indeed, several detectors make use of greenhouse gases (GHGs) since they allow achieving excellent performance and long-term stability. With a growing concern on climate change and future restrictions, it is fundamental to look for solutions that can balance detector performance with an eco-friendly approach.
CERN was a pioneer in developing strategies to reduce the use of GHGs in particle detection. Three different strategies have been implemented: the use of gas recirculation and recuperation systems for existing and future detector systems and the search of alternative eco-friendly gas mixtures.
Thanks to the first two approaches, it is possible to recycle the gas mixture supplied to the detectors and to retrieve GHGs from the used gas mixtures, allowing a reduction of GHG emissions up to 95-100% at the LHC experiments.
By looking at the long-term operation and future particle detector applications, the search of alternative eco-friendly gas mixtures must be envisaged. A big effort is on-going for the C2H2F4replacement for the Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) detectors, which nowadays account for most of CERN particle detector emissions. Several eco-friendly gas mixtures have been identified and tested but finding a suitable replacement for the LHC experiments is particularly challenging. Alternatives to SF6, which is the most powerful GHG, are under studies for RPCs in term of detector performance and chemical characterization. Last point is increasingly crucial since most of the so-called eco-friendly gases belong to the PFAS family which is very likely to be subject to new regulations soon.
An overview of the CERN strategies to reduce GHGs from particle detectors will be presented, with a particular focus on the studies on eco-friendly gas mixtures.

Speaker: Beatrice Mandelli (CERN)

ELBA_Mandelli.pdf

253 Commissioning of the MIGDAL detector with fast neutrons at NILE/ISIS

Many dark matter experiments are exploiting the Migdal effect, a rare atomic process, to improve sensitivity to low-mass WIMP-like dark matter candidates. However, this process is yet to be directly observed in nuclear scattering. The MIGDAL experiment aims to make the first unambiguous measurement of the Migdal effect in nuclear scattering. A low-pressure optical Time Projection Chamber is used to image in 3-dimensions the characteristic of a Migdal event: an electron and a nuclear recoil track sharing a common vertex. Nuclear recoils are induced using fast neutrons from a DD source, which scatter in the gaseous volume of the detector. The experiment is operated with 50 Torr of CF$_4$ using two glass GEMs for charge amplification. Both light and charge are read-out, and these measurements are combined for full-track reconstruction.

Commissioning data has been taken with fast neutrons at the Neutron Irradiation Laboratory for Electronics (NILE) at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK. In this talk, I will present the results of the experiment's commissioning and the performance of the detector with a high rate of highly ionising nuclear recoils. I will also present the detector's performance for low energy electrons, highlighting the capability to operate at the wide dynamic range needed to image the characteristic Migdal topology.

Speaker: Lex Millins (University of Birmingham / STFC RAL)

PM2024_MIGDAL_LM.pdf

Electronics and On-Detector Processing - Poster session

This session will be on display on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning
Link to the contributions

254 Exploring XPOL-III: Advancements in CMOS VLSI ASIC for X-ray Detection

We report on the design, implementation and initial tests of XPOL-III, a cutting-edge, 180nm CMOS VLSI ASIC integrating over 100K pixels at 50 um pitch (over a hexagonal grid) with an active area of 15 x 15 mm squared. Based on the readout chip successfully operating in the Gas Pixel Detectors onboard the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) since December, 2021, XPOL-III is designed to be used as a charge collecting anode, with a low-noise (30 e) spectroscopic electronics chain integrated within each pixel. The new ASIC significantly improves over its predecessor over all the relevant performance metrics, featuring a better uniformity of response, a significantly lower minimum trigger threshold, and a much higher (x10) throughput.

When coupled to a suitable solid-state pixel sensor, XPOL-III might open exciting perspectives for the implementation of a new class of event-driven, hybrid X-ray detectors providing excellent spatial and energy resolution with full single-photon sensitivity. In addition to the polarimetric applications for which the chip was initially conceived, we report on the initial R&D activity in this new direction.

Speaker: Massimo Minuti (INFN - Pisa)

minuti_pic.PNG

minuti_PisaMeeting2024-1.pdf

255 Extending the Reach of the Mu2e Experiment through Developing Agnostic Track Reconstruction Algorithms

The Mu2e experiment plans to search for neutrinoless muon to electron
conversion in the field of a nucleus. Such a process violates lepton
flavor conservation. To perform this search, a muon beam is focused on
an aluminum target, the muons are stopped in the field of the aluminum
nucleus, and electrons emitted from subsequent muon decays in orbit
are measured. The endpoint energy for this process is 104.97 MeV; an
excess of measured electrons at this energy signifies neutrinoless
muon to electron conversion has occurred.Currently under construction
at the Fermilab Muon Campus, Mu2e will stop $10^{18}$ muons on target
in 3 years of running, with the goal of reaching a single event
sensitivity of #3\times10^{-17}$ on the branching ratio. In order to reach such a sensitivity, one must write software that efficiently reconstructs the tracks of conversion electrons that pass through the Mu2e tracker. This has been achieved by breaking the reconstruction process down into four successive steps: hit reconstruction, time clustering, helix finding, and a final track fitting. One shortcoming of the current code is that the time clustering and helix finding stages make various assumptions that make them highly tuned to conversion electrons at the endpoint energy. This limits the collaboration’s ability to constrain some backgrounds, and search for a larger range of physics. In addition to that, the trigger and data-acquisition (TDAQ) system makes an extensive use of online track reconstruction based on the same algorithms developed in the Offline software. The events are selected based on the decision of dedicated software filters. To match the Mu2e requirements, the trigger system needs to deliver a signal efficiency $>90\%$ and a processing time $\leq 5$~ms/event.

The work presented here details the development of agnostic track
reconstruction algorithms, and how they fit into the Mu2e trigger
system.

Speaker: Matthew Stortini (Yale University)

Pisa2024Poster.pdf

256 Development of the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter Backend Readout Electronics for the HL-LHC

In 2029 the High-Luminosity LHC will start to be operational. It will allow to collect ten times more data than what have been achieved by the LHC.

This will be effectively done by increasing the number of collisions by bunch crossing, leading to higher radiation doses and busier events. To cope with those harsher data taking conditions, the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter more advanced data processing will have to be running to measured the deposited energies.

To achieve this a new ATCA compliant signal processing boards (“LASP”) has been designed. It will receive the detector ADC data at 40 MHz and for two different gains. In total the 278 LASPs will have to receive 345 Tbps of data via 33000 links at 10 Gbps.

On each of the LASP board 2 high end Agilex FGPAs will perform online energy and time reconstruction. A subset of the computed energies will be sent with low latency to the hardware trigger system. Meanwhile the the full set of data are buffered until the reception of trigger accept signals. For the trigerred event teh data are sent to the aquisition via a Smart Rear Transition Module (SRTM).

Given the high number of particles created per collision, it will become much more frequent to have overlapping pulses. Adavanced neural netwok technics are foreseen to be used to disentangle the energy value of each deposit. Those machine learning techniques will have also to be inserted onto the LASP firmware.

In addition to the LASP a timing system allowing to control and synchronize the on-detector electron have been designed. Profitting from the newest electronic a very compact LATOURNETT board allows to control up to 72 on-detector boards.

Latest developements on the HW and firmware of the LASP, SRTM and LATOURNETT system will be presented on this contributions.

Speaker: Ki Ryeong Park (Columbia University)

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poster_pisa2024_park.pdf

257 Design and perspectives of the CMS Level-1 trigger Data Scouting system

The CMS detector will undergo a significant upgrade to cope with the HL-LHC instantaneous luminosity and average number of proton-proton collisions per bunch crossing. The Phase-2 CMS detector will be equipped with a new Level-1 (L1) trigger system that will have access to an unprecedented level of information. Advanced reconstruction algorithms will be deployed directly on the L1 FPGA-based processors, producing reconstructed physics primitives of quasi-offline quality. The latter will be collected and processed by the Level-1 trigger Data Scouting (L1DS) system at the full bunch crossing rate. Besides providing vast amounts of data for L1 and detector monitoring, the L1DS will perform quasi-online analysis in a heterogeneous computing farm: the study of signatures too common to fit within the L1 acceptance budget, or orthogonal to the standard physics trigger selection strategies, is expected to greatly benefit from this approach. An L1DS prototype system has been set up to operate in the current LHC Run-3, with the main goal of demonstrating the basic principle and shape the development of the Phase-2 system. The Run-3 L1DS receives trigger primitives from the Global Muon and Calorimeter Trigger, the Global Trigger decision bits and the muon segments from the Barrel Muon Track Finder. FPGA boards acquire and aggregate the synchronous trigger data streams and perform basic data reduction, before sending the trigger primitives to a set of computing nodes through 100Gbps Ethernet connections running a simplified firmware version of the TCP/IP protocol. An Intel TBB-based DAQ software receives the TCP/IP streams and applies further processing before the ingestion of the data into a cluster of servers running the CMS reconstruction framework. The output of the processing step are L1DS data sets in Analysis Object Data format. This contribution presents the Run-3 L1DS demonstrator architecture and recent physics results extracted from the collected data.

Speaker: Rocco Ardino (INFN - Padova)

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poster-roccoardino-l1scouting.pdf

258 The Mu2e Digitizer ReAdout Controller (DiRAC): characterization and radiation hardness

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for the charged-lepton flavour violating conversion of negative muons into electrons in the coulomb field of an Al nucleus, planning to reach four orders of magnitude beyond the current best limit. The conversion electron will be identified by a high-resolution Straw tracker and an ElectroMagnetic Calorimeter.

The calorimeter system is composed of 1400 crystals coupled to SiPMs, each readout by preamplifiers and custom high frequency digitizer boards (DiRAC). The calorimeter is located inside a high vacuum cryostat that hosts a superconducting magnet and to reduce the number of pass-throughs and the cable length, the front-end and the read-out electronics are also located inside the cryostat. This poses serious design issues due to this harsh environment, aggravated by the fact that the collaboration to limit costs has decided to use only COTS components. Simulation studies estimated that, in the highest irradiated regions, the front end and the digitizer boards will be exposed to a total dose of ~ 1.5 krad per year of run with a heavy hadrons (E> 20Mev) fluence of ~ 10E9 cm2 per year. The Mu2e collaboration requires to qualify the electronics boards for 5 years of life and besides require applying to this qualification a safety factor of 12.

The DiRAC was validated for operation in high-vacuum and under 1T B-field. An extensive radiation hardness qualification campaign, carried out with photons from Co-60, 14 MeV neutron beams, and 200 MeV protons certified the DiRAC design to substain doses up to 30 krad, neutron fluences up to 1012 n1MeV/cm2 and very low numbers of single-event effects occurrences. Dedicated latchup-safe solid state fuse circuit was embedded in the design to automatically protect the board and recover from fault conditions. We provide a detailed description of the design and of the qualification campaign.

Speaker: Elena Pedreschi (INFN - Pisa)

Immagine_PEDRESCHI_The Mu2e Digitizer ReAdout Controller (DiRAC) characterization and radiation hardness.jpg

Poster_PEDRESCHI_The Mu2e Digitizer ReAdout Controller (DiRAC) characterization and radiation hardness.pdf

259 ATLAS Level-0 Muon Barrel Trigger System Status and Integration Tests for Phase-II

The ATLAS Level-0 muon trigger system aims to quickly and efficiently identify events containing muons, facilitating the selection of interesting physics events and reducing the data rate for further processing.
In the barrel region of the detector, three concentric layers of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) are currently used for selecting muon candidates with predetermined transverse momentum, using a coincidence-based algorithm on the three RPC stations.
In preparation for the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), imperative upgrades are in progress to fortify the ATLAS Level-0 Barrel muon trigger system. These enhancements involve the incorporation of a novel inner layer of RPC detectors. A replacement of the trigger and readout electronics is vital to retain the RPCs excellent trigger and tracking performance even with the extremely high particle rates.
The existing on-detector electronics (Pad and Splitter box) will be replaced by the innovative Data Collector and Transmitter (DCT) boards. The DCTs will be responsible for gathering RPC hit data, applying zero suppression, and transmitting it to the off-detector electronics, the Barrel Sector Logic (SL) boards, situated in the counting room.
For the HL-LHC configuration, a new SL board has been developed to collect the digitized detector data coming through optical fibers from up to 50 DCTs. It will execute the Level-0 trigger algorithm on the four RPC stations, perform detector readout logic, and convey muon candidate coordinates along with trigger threshold measurements to the Monitored Drift Tubes (MDT) Trigger Processor (MDTTP) board. The MDTTP, with its more accurate measurement of the candidate's transverse momentum, will efficiently reduce the RPC data rate.
This report outlines the outcomes of the hardware and firmware validation for the DCT final prototypes, leveraging Xilinx Series 7 FPGAs, and the second and final SL prototype, built upon Xilinx Ultrascale+ FPGAs and SoC architecture.

Speaker: Sabrina Perrella (INFN - Roma 1)

poster_PISA_2024_CDS_v2.pdf

sabrina_perrella_picture.jpg

260 Technical challenges and performance of the new ATLAS LAr Calorimeter Trigger

To cope with the increase of the LHC instantaneous luminosity, new trigger readout electronics were installed on the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeters.

On the detector, 124 new electronic boards digitise at high speed 10 times more signals than the legacy system. Downstream, large FPGAs are processing up to 20 Tbps of data to compute the deposited energies. Moreover, a new control and monitoring infrastructure has been developed.

This contribution will present the challenges of the commissioning, the first steps in operation, and the milestones still to be completed towards the full operation of both the legacy and the new trigger readout paths for the LHC Run-3.

Speaker: Sully Billingsley (Southern Methodist University)

Picture-Sully_Billingsley.jpeg

poster-Technical_Challenges_poster.pdf

261 Matterhorn, a high flux detector for 4th generation synchrotrons

The upgrade of most synchrotrons to diffraction-limited storage rings (DLSR), presents various challenges for detectors, above all the significantly increased photon flux exceeding the count rate capabilities of existing single photon-counting detectors. In response to this challenge and targeting the upgrade of the Swiss Light Source, the PSD detector group at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI, Switzerland), initiated the development of Matterhorn, a hybrid pixel detector designed to meet the specific requirements of DLSRs.
The Matterhorn ASIC boasts a pixel pitch of 75 µm and is designed using UMC 110nm technology. Each pixel features a charge-sensitive amplifier and a shaper with selectable polarity, gain, and shaping time, feeding four independent comparators, with individual threshold and 6-bit trimbits, and four 16-bit independently gatable counters, which can be operated using various configurations. The value of the counters can be stored in local memory, enabling continuous operation.
In high-flux mode, the additional comparator thresholds can be configured to values exceeding 100% of the incoming beam energy, allowing for the detection of the pile-up of two or more photons, effectively extending the pixel count rate capabilities to values exceeding 20 MHz at a 10% counting loss with an ENC<200e-rms.
This contribution will initially explain the working principle and functionalities of Matterhorn and present the test results of our two prototypes.
Matterhorn0.1 features a digitally synthesized control periphery responsible for chip control and readout. It is connected to two serial links operating at a clock frequency of 1.6 GHz provided by an on-chip PLL.
Matterhorn0.2 addresses issues from the first version and introduces on-chip DACs for biasing, additional debugging capabilities, and an improved readout circuitry, achieving a data rate of 3.125 Gb/s.
We expect that Matterhorn will contribute to extend the outstanding performance and reliability of single photon counting detectors to next generation light sources.

Speaker: Aldo Mozzanica (Paul Scherrer Institut)

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Poster_MH02_ELBA2024.pdf

262 R&D of a timing measurement ASIC for possible HL-LHC upgrade

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will undergo a major upgrade for the high-luminosity phase of the LHC (HL-LHC), which is expected to start in 2029. In addition to improving the detector rate capabilities and performance at increased higher luminosities, precision timing measurements are added to mitigate pile-up effects. The timing detector currently under construction cover pseudorapidity up to η = 3. A possible pathway for further improvements is the extension of timing capabilities to cover the full tracker acceptance up to η = 4. Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGAD) pixels have been shown to be a suitable candidate for replacing a part of the pixel detector end-caps during a future Long Shutdown or Year-End Technical Stop of the LHC.
Here, we present design efforts towards a readout Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) capable of operating with LGAD pixel detectors in the environment of the pixel end-caps at the HL-LHC. It is designed in a 28 nm CMOS technology, to process the signals from LGADs that will be used as the sensors for this timing layer.
LGADs are a class of silicon sensors that feature an internal moderate gain, enabling fast and precise timing measurements. The targeted ASIC should feature a low jitter preamplifier, a discriminator with time walk correction, and a Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) targeting a final resolution of 30 ps. It also provides a digital interface system for configuration and readout, designed to balance between power efficiency, integration and performance.
We report on the results of the modeling and simulations of the analog part at transistor level. We explain the challenges and the different concepts to meet the requirements of the possible CMS timing upgrade in terms of noise, gain, linearity, time resolution, power consumption, and different implementations of the LGADs.

Speaker: Dr Abderrahmane Ghimouz (Paul Scherrer Institut)

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poster_PM2024_GHIMOUZ_FV.pdf

263 A versatile and fast pixel matrix read-out architecture for MAPS

Monolithic active pixel sensors are considered for vertex or tracking detectors
of a large variety of particle physics experiments. Consequently, the design of
pixel matrices faces a wide range of specifications. That impacts in particular
the matrix read-out strategy, which is highly constrained in terms of power
consumption, layout area, time-stramping ability, and hit rate. Asynchronous
logic, an emerging ASIC design technique, seems promising in this respect, being
naturally data-driven and power-sparing.
We have developed a pixel matrix read-out architecture based on the local
interconnection of asynchronous N:1 arbiters with fixed priority. This architec-
ture is not limited by global signals and can achieve high bandwidth with a
fully column-parallel stream. Layouts of the required digital logic for a double
column were completed in the 65 nm CMOS imaging process currently explored
by the ALICE-ITS3 and CERN-EP R&D WP1.2 projects, for various combina-
tions of pixel pitch (18 to 30 μm), column depth (512 to 1024 pixels) and arbiter
size (2:1 to 1024:1).
This contribution presents the matrix read-out performances obtained from
post-layout simulations, assuming either a continuous hit-rate or hit bursts
clocked at 40 MHz, having in mind potential applications to HL-LHC experi-
ments (ALICE3 or LHCb phase 2 upgrade), Belle II long term upgrade and a
future high-energy leptonic collider like FCCee. Results explore the architecture
benefits in terms of area, power consumption, and timing. Especially we ad-
dress the feasibility of 18 μm pixel pitch with dissipation below 10 mW/cm2, the
maximum hit-rate allowing to time-stamp hits within 25 ns with an efficiency
of 99.9% and the evolution of the energy/hit/surface figure of merit with var-
ious configurations. Other aspects discussed include very small pitches (15μm
or less), the possibility of integrating such readout in a stitched sensor and a
discussion about radiation hardness.

Speaker: Jean Soudier (IPHC)

PosterPISA24JeanSOUDIER.pdf

264 A new concept analog system to readout multi-channel fast photodetectors

A new concept design of an analog card for reading out multi-channel photosensors is presented. The basic idea is to build a versatile, high bandwidth device that can be used for collecting, for amplifying and for summing individual photo-detector channels in a full configurable way. Key point is to make programmable analog sums of any analog channel sub-sample. This allows for selection of readout regions of interest of the analog signal pattern before digital conversion. A first prototype developed with high bandwidth IC components and switches was designed and produced in the Pisa INFN labs. This prototype produces one output signal which is the analog sum of up to 64 input signals. Input signal equalization or weighting is possible with a programmable gain in the first amplification stage before analog sum. The output signal amplification can be also adjusted to match the dynamical range of any external digitizer. Full device configuration is done with a custom GUI. The most tests performed with the prototype were planned to verify that no signal distortion was introduced in terms of pulse shape and time jitter for all possible system configurations. Preliminary results are very encouraging, and they represent a proof of feasibility of the project. Future developments include the design of an ASIC device of a card revised version suitable for practical applications in research or industrial contexts.

Speaker: Martina Cucinotta (Università di Pisa / INFN)

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Poster-Cucinotta.pdf

265 Design and Thermal Simulation of the Front-end Module for STARLIGHT

This paper presents a front-end module simulator for SemiconducTor Array detectoR with Large dynamIc ranGe and cHarge inTegrating readout(STARLIGHT). STARLIGHT is a universal, hybrid silicon pixel detector with a high frame rate (≥10kHz) and is the first charge-integrating surface detector of XFEL in China.The detector will operate in a vacuum environment, and the thermal power per unit area is 5.443mW/mm^2, which poses a challenge for the heat dissipation of the entire module. In order to verify whether the mechanical and PCB design can meet the heat dissipation requirements of the project, a simulation thermal simulator was initially designed to replace the heat generated by the ASIC by laying copper wires on the PCB during the phase when the ASIC was unavailable. Subsequently, we carried out thermal simulation and test on the whole simulation module, and obtained the results to meet the project requirements. These efforts provide validation and guidance for ensuring the thermal performance of STARLIGHT front-end modules.

Speaker: Han Wang (ShanghaiTech)

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poster-Han Wang.pdf

266 A Wide Dynamics Range Front-End Electronics for SiPMs using High-Speed Operational and Integration Amplifiers

Silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) have gained popularity in particle physics due to their inherent advantages in terms of compactness, low power consumption, and high photon detection efficiency. Moreover, we have to deal with signals ranging from a few photoelectrons (PE), where we need to reconstruct the exact shape, up to thousands of PEs in short time intervals.
In this design, when we need to analyze fast events with few PEs, the signal of the SiPM is handled by a high speed operational amplifier. Special care is required in the design of the printed circuit board (PCB) to handle the high-speed signals. Dual power of each op-amp is provided by indivivual L-C fiters and its ground is not directly connected to the plane, but with a dedicated top layer route.
As the number of PEs increases we will begin to use the integrated outputs, at first the one after three stages of amplification, and finally the one after two stages of amplification. In both cases, the output voltage level will be directly proportional to the number of the input PEs.
Two channels are managed by the PCB and in order to minimize the output noise and crosstalk, ground and power planes are splitted independently for each channel.
This poster is focused on the design of a two channel board, and the results achieved on the first prototypes with 3x3 mm. photosensitive area SiPM in cryogenic environment.

Speaker: Massimo Cariello (INFN - Genova)

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Poster-185-Cariello.pdf

Slide-Cariello-01.pdf

267 Single Event Effect test results of the ULTRASAT space mission

ULTRASAT (ULtra-violet TRansient Astronomy SATellite) is a wide-angle space telescope that will perform a deep time-resolved all-sky survey in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) spectrum. The science objectives are the detection of counterparts to short-lived transient astronomical events such as gravitational wave sources and supernovae. The mission is led by the Weizmann Institute of Science and is planned for launch in 2026 in collaboration with the Israeli Space Agency and NASA. DESY will provide the UV camera, composed by the detector assembly located in the telescope focal plane and the remote electronics unit. The camera is composed out of four back-metallized CMOS Image Sensors (CIS) manufactured in the 4T, dual gain Tower process. As part of the radiation qualification of the camera, Single Event Effect (SEE) testing has been performed by irradiating the sensor with heavy ions at the RADEF, Jyvaskyla facility. Preliminary results of both Single Event Upset (SEU) and Single Event Latch-up (SEL) occurrence rate in the sensor are presented. Additionally, an in-orbit SEE rate simulation has been performed in order to gain preliminary knowledge about the expected effect of SEE on the mission.

Speaker: Vlad Dumitru Berlea (DESY - Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron)

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Poster_VladBerlea.pdf

268 First results from the Timepix4 telescope

A beam telescope based on the Timepix4 ASIC was built in order to perform tests of synchronous multiple-detector readout and track reconstruction with fast timing capability.
The telescope consists of eight planes with n-on-p silicon sensors, each bump bonded to a Timepix4 ASIC. Four of these planes are instrumented with 300 µm thick planar sensors, and they are tilted with respect to the be incidence to provide high quality spatial measurements. The other four planes have 100 µm thick sensors to achieve a better time response.
The Timepix4 is designed to record both the time of arrival (ToA) and the time over threshold (ToT) for each discriminated signal. It has a 448 × 512 pixel matrix with square pixels at a 55 μm pitch. Each superpixel, a group of two by four pixels, has a 640 MHz voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). The VCO has four phase shifted copies, which results in a ToA digitisation with time bins of 195 ps. The ToT is proportional to the charge collected by the silicon sensor, and is used to improve spatial resolution based on charge sharing. The ToT is also used to correct for timewalk and improve the ToA resolution. After VCO and timewalk corrections, the timing resolution of each plane improves significantly. The measurements can be combined to achieve a more precise time stamp on a track. In this presentation, a detailed overview of the most recent results in temporal and spatial resolutions obtained by the telescope will be shown.

Speaker: David Bacher (CERN)

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poster-Timepix4Telescope_FirstResults.pdf

269 A Time-over-Threshold based analog front-end in 28 nm CMOS for pixel detectors in future colliders

This work is concerned with the design of an analog front-end processor for the readout of pixel detectors in future high energy physics experiments. The front-end circuit is being developed, in a 28 nm CMOS technology, in the framework of the INFN Falaphel project, whose ultimate goal is the integration of silicon photonic devices with rad-hard electronics in the 28 nm node, and which targets the requirements for optical data readout in future trackers such as the one at the hadronic Future Circular Collider experiments.
The front-end circuit being developed consists of a shaper-less architecture which leverages the Time-Over-Threshold (ToT) technique for the analog-to-digital conversion of the signal from the detector. It includes a charge sensitive amplifier (CSA), designed to cope with large (of the order of tens of nanoamps) detector leakage currents, connected to a pre-comparator stage converting the single-ended signal at the CSA output to a differential one. The pre-comparator output is fed to a discriminator stage, implemented by means of a straight differential pair with active load. A 5-bit threshold tuning DAC is implemented at the pre-comparator level in the analog processor chain.
Post-layout simulation results show that the circuit, operated with a nominal current close to 4.5 uA and a supply voltage of 0.9 V, is able to operate at threshold levels well below 1000 electrons. A prototype chip including a matrix of 8x32 readout channels will be submitted in a mini@sic run in April 2024.
The full description of the analog front-end and of the prototype chip being designed will be provided in the conference paper, together with the main simulation results.

Speaker: Luigi Gaioni (Università di Bergamo / INFN)

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poster-Elba2024-Gaioni.pdf

270 Design and performance of the readout chip in the Si(Li) tracker module of the GAPS experiment

This work reports the experimental results from the characterization of a semiconductor detector module, that is the basic unit of the tracker for the General AntiParticle Spectrometer (GAPS) balloon mission. In the austral summer of 2024, GAPS will search for an indirect signature of dark matter through the detection of low-energy (< 0.25 GeV/n) cosmic-ray antiprotons, antideuterons, and antihelium.
GAPS relies on a Time-Of-Flight system, and on a system, based on lithium-drifted silicon, Si(Li), detectors, which serves as the target and tracker for the initial cosmic-ray particle and its annihilation products. The tracker system is composed of ten layers of 6×6 modules each. The modules are arranged in lines of 6 and every line shares the same low power supply voltage. Each detector module hosts 4 Si(Li) detectors divided into 8 strips and read out by a 180 nm CMOS ASIC. The readout ASIC, named SLIDER32 (32 channels Si-Li DEtector Readout ASIC), is comprised of 32 analog readout channels, an 11-bit SAR ADC and a digital back-end section. The core of the ASIC is a low-noise analog readout channel implementing a dynamic signal compression to resolve both X-rays in the range of 20 to 100 keV and charged particles with energy deposition of up to 100 MeV. It features an energy resolution < 4 keV FWHM in the 20-100 keV range with a 40 pF detector capacitance, to distinguish X-rays from antiprotonic or antideuteronic exotic atoms. The ASIC will run at a temperature of about - 40 °C with a detector leakage current in the 5-10 nA range.
The ASIC has been thoroughly tested and a complete set of experimental results will be presented at the conference, including the performance of a fully assembled Si(Li) tracker module in the detection of X-rays from a $^{241}$Am source and of cosmic muons.

Speaker: Valerio Re (Università di Bergamo / INFN)

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poster-Elba2024_Re.pdf

271 Acquisition and Control Module for the DAMIC-M Experiment

We introduce a new Acquisition and Control Module (ACM), designed for the DAMIC-M (DArk Matter In CCDs at Modane) experiment. This novel technique to search for dark matter uses thick CCDs, almost one mm, which can detect signals as low as a few electrons. One Acquisition and Control Module incorporates all power, bias and clock generators required to control four CCDs, as well as four 18-Bit, 15Msps ADC channels. In this experiment, high resolution detection of a single electron is made possible by taking repetitive measurements of the pixel charge. The ACM functionality is managed by a powerful Intel Arria 5 FPGA, allowing for remote configuration of all parameters. This 6U VME form factor module was designed to work independently, or inside a traditional VME crate. The board can interface via two 6Gbps SFP optical links and one Gigabit Ethernet port on the front panel, as well as via the VME64 back plane. Multiple module synchronization with simultaneous sampling is made possible with four LVDS signals via an auxiliary front panel RJ45 connector. The DAMIC-M experiment will run 50 Acquisition and Control Modules, installed at the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane in France. The full design and test results are presented.

Speaker: Mircea Bogdan (The University of Chicago)

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poster-Chicago-MB.pdf

272 First Experimental Results on Ignite0: a prototype Pixel Front-End ASIC with Timing in 28 nm

In this contribution are presented the results on the test activity on the Ignite-0
ASIC.
The IGNITE project (INFN Ground-up INITiative-on micro-Electronics de-
velopments) aims to develop integrated micro-systems suitable for particle track-
ing in the next generation of high-luminosity experiment at the LHC. This ob-
jective involves the following system level requirements: a pixel pitch of ∼ 50
μm, a time resolution of at least 50 ps and a sustainable event rate up to 10
GHz/cm2. These specifications must be met within specific constraints: a ∼
1 W/cm2 power consumption, a radiation tolerance to TID up to 1 Grad, and
a material budget of 0.5 % Xo at most. The investigated system-level techno-
logical solutions include: a 28 nm CMOS front-end chip coupled with a silicon
3D sensor, a system assembly leveraging 3D integration technologies and an
integrated optical read-out.
Ignite-0 has been developed during 2023 in order to test individually the
building blocks for the future developments on the front-end ASIC. It contains
mainly the pixel front-end electronics such as the Analog Front-End (AFE) and
the TDC, but it also integrates various service blocks such as a Σ∆ DAC and
two different PLL architectures. All the integrated blocks have been designed
to satisfy the desired requirements and constraints both in terms of power,
performance and form-factor.
Both in terms of the AFE and the TDC, the implemented architectures
were developed on the basis of the ones of the Timespot1 front-end ASIC in
order to improve their performance and reliability. Moreover, six different AFE
architectures were investigated in order to test different combinations of the
preamplifier and discriminator.
This contribution will discuss the viability of the implemented solutions in
terms of their performance and robustness by comparing experimental results
and circuit simulations.

Speaker: Lorenzo Piccolo (INFN - Cagliari)

poster_ig0_pm2024.pdf

273 Performance of small-diameter muon drift tube chambers with new fast readout ASIC at high background rates

Experiments like ATLAS at the HL-LHC or detectors at future hadron colliders need muon detectors with excellent momentum resolution at the percent level up to the TeV scale both at the trigger and the offline reconstruction level. This requires muon tracking chambers with high spatial resolution even at the highest background fluxes. Drift-tube chambers are the most cost effective technology for the instrumentation of large-area muon systems providing the required high rate capability and three-dimensional spatial resolution. Thanks to the advances in analog and digital electronics, the new generation small-diameter Muon Drift Tube (sMDT) detectors with 15 mm tube diameter can be used in stand-alone mode up to the background rates as high as expected at future hadron collider experiments, providing event times and second coordinates without the necessity of additional trigger chambers. New key developments in the integrated front-end electronics are fast baseline restoration of the shaped signal and picosecond time-to-digital converters for second coordinate measurement with double-sided read-out of the tubes. Self-triggered operation has become possible using modern high-performance FPGAs allowing for real-time pattern recognition and track reconstruction. A new amplifier shaper discriminator chip in 65 nm TSMC CMOS technology with increased sensitivity and faster baseline recovery has been developed to cope with very high background fluxes. Extensive test beam campaign using sMDT chamber equipped with new readout electronics has been performed at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++). The results which will be discussed in this contribution shown that thanks to the shorter peaking time of the new chip, in comparison to its predecessor, leads to an enhancement in the spatial resolution of the drift tubes by up to $100 \, \mu m$ up to a background rate of 1 MHz which is the maximum rate expected at the 100 TeV collider experiment.

Speaker: Hubert Kroha (Max-Planck-Institute for Physics)

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poster-Elba2024_HKroha_ASD_65nm_V3.pdf

274 Performance and test of the new CMS ECAL barrel front-end electronics for HL-LHC

The CMS ECAL barrel is set to undergo a substantial upgrade to meet the new and more challenging requirements of the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) accelerator. This upgrade involves a comprehensive redesign of the on-detector readout electronics, introducing new faster ASICs.

The upgraded readout architecture will consist of a fast trans-impedance amplifier, called CATIA, and a two-channels 12-bit 160 MS/s ADC and a data selection and compression ASIC, called LiTE-DTU. The output of each readout channel is a single 1.28 Gbps serial line, which is connected to an e-link of the lpGBT radiation tolerant transceiver. The data from all readout channels will be sent to an FPGA based data processor located outside the LHC cavern.

The CATIA serves as a trans-impedance amplifier to read signals from the APD sensors connected to the ECAL crystals. It provides two differential outputs with two different gains, x10 and x1, to optimise the resolution for signals up to 2 TeV. The LiTE-DTU ASIC integrates two 12-bit 160 MS/s successive approximation register ADCs to sample CATIA outputs. It also incorporates a gain selection mechanism and a lossless data compression algorithm, enabling efficient data transmission. The resulting data from all readout channels is transmitted to an off-detector FPGA-based data processor.

This upgrade aims to deliver high-precision energy measurements, with a significantly improved time resolution (approximately 30 ps) for photons and electrons above 50 GeV. This enhancement addresses HL-LHC challenges such as increased event pileup and improves the rejection of spike signals resulting from direct APD interactions.

Extensive testing has been carried out at both ASIC and system levels, demonstrating the readiness of all the prototypes and the system's ability to meet the time and energy resolution requirements, also in beam test settings. The highlights of these tests will be presented.

Speaker: Cecilia Borca (INFN - Torino)

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poster-borca-pisa-meeting.pdf

275 The FastRICH ASIC at the LHCb RICH enhancements

Sub-100ps time information is a powerful tool to maintain the excellent particle ID performance of the LHCb RICH detectors during the high-multiplicity events at the HL-LHC Run 5. A cornerstone of the detector upgrade programme is the introduction of a novel opto-electronic readout chain with single-photon hit time information. The phased improvement, with new readout electronics during Long Shutdown 3 (LS3, 2026-2028), will be outlined. Central to the fast-timing readout electronics is a new ASIC called the FastRICH. This 65 nm CMOS ASIC is being designed by CERN and the University of Barcelona and the first chips will be available and tested by the end of 2024. The FastRICH packs a unique set of features targeting operation in HEP experiments and in particular the LHCb RICH detector: 25 ps time resolution, faster than 40 MHz operation, low power consumption in a 16-channel package, radiation hardness and a wide input signal dynamic range for coupling to multi-anode PMTs, SiPMs or MCP-based photon detectors. Special attention is paid to the reduction of data throughput in the ASIC, with constant-fraction discrimination, a configurable time gate to remove out-of-time hits at the front-end and a zero-suppressed output format. The direct interface with the CERN optical link chipset and the strategy for global detector calibration and operation in the time domain will be presented. An extensive test campaign at the SPS charged particle beam facility has been performed including the FastRICH predecessor, the FastIC ASIC, coupled to a TDC (time-to-digital converter) and the upgrade CERN optical link chipset. Overall, this contribution aims to introduce the future fast-timing components to the audience and outline how these will be integrated in a full detector design for the LHCb RICH at CERN.

Speaker: Floris Keizer (CERN)

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poster-Keizer-FastRICH-LS3-Elba2024.pdf

276 A 4D-Tracker Demonstrator based on the Timespot1, a CMOS 28-nm ASIC

High luminosity upgrades to particle colliders imposes challenges to vertex detectors in terms of both radiation damage and event pile-up. For future tracking detectors, such as LHCb Upgrade II VErtex LOcator (VELO) detector, requirements are: a <50 ps timing resolution; spatial resolution on the order of 10 um; and radiation hardness up to $6 \times 10^{16}~n_{eq}~cm^{-2}$. The TimeSPOT collaboration has already tested and proven that 3D silicon trench sensors are a potential candidate for such detectors, but the development of fast-timing front-end electronics remains an ongoing challenge.

To overcome these obstacles, 28 nm CMOS technology has been introduced to high energy physics to develop new fast-timing front-end electronics for sensors. The Timespot1 ASIC was developed with such technology and aimed to bridge the gap between currently available front-end ASICs and those required for high-luminosity collider applications. Each ASIC contained 1024 channels in a 32 $\times$ 32 matrix, with each channel containing its own analog front-end and TDC. front-end and TDC. We present a collection of results on the Timespot1 hybrid: self-tests of the ASIC; a test beam at CERN SPS on a 5-layer demonstrator of Timespot1 hybrids; and a TCT scan of a 3D silicon trench sensor that has been bump-bonded to the Timespot1 ASIC. By combining results from these tests, it is possible to give a detailed characterization of pixel operation (ASIC and 3D-trench silicon sensor). The results will be presented in the present paper. Such results from the Timespot1 ASIC are highly valuable and will be used by the IGNITE collaboration in the development of new fast-timing ASICs.

Speaker: Matthew Addison (University of Manchester)

Poster_Matt_Addison_V3.pdf

277 Fast and low power SiPM amplifier operating in a wide temperature range

The next generation of RICH detectors in high energy physics experiments may use SiPMs as photon sensing elements. This upgrade is necessary to achieve greater detector granularity and speed. Thanks to their small dimensions and performance, SiPMs have also been identified as best candidates for photon sensing in neutrino studies based on liquid Argon time projection chambers (TPC). However, one downside of using such devices is that they need to be cooled down to cryogenic temperatures to detect single photons and avoid being overwhelmed by the presence of 'dark signals' due to radiation damage. It is therefore necessary to study and characterise SiPM models in dedicated campaigns, using a custom-built amplifying chain that can also operate in an extended temperature range, between $100 \;\textrm{K}$ and $300 \;\textrm{K}$, for detector characterisation purposes. The proposed amplifier configuration consists of a hetero-junction bipolar transistor (HBT) in common emitter configuration, followed by a current-feedback operational amplifier (CFOA). The HBT was chosen as input element for its low voltage noise. The signal is fed into the base of the HBT and is picked up by the CFOA at the collector. The CFOA is operated in an unconventional open-loop mode. Feedback is closed between the output of the CFOA and the base of the HBT. The circuit behaviour has been computed and simulated to achieve a signal bandwidth of several hundred megahertz ($400 \;\textrm{MHz} < BW < 800 \;\textrm{MHz}$), a phase margin of approximately $45 °$ and a power consumption of around $115 \;\textrm{mW}$. The amplifier prototype unit, which is currently under test, can be adjusted to cover the considered temperature range and still operate at full speed. The measurements, performed at both ambient and cryogenic temperatures, are compared to the simulations and calculations of the overall feedback circuit.

Speaker: Davide Trotta (INFN - Milano Bicocca)

picture-DavideTrotta.jpg

poster-AmpSiPM.pdf

278 The front-end and DAQ system of the Terzina instrument onboard the NUSES space mission

The Terzina instrument has the scientific goal of detecting Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) surpassing 100 PeV and producing atmospheric showers (EAS). For that purpose, the instrument will be installed onboard a LEO (Low Earth Orbit) sun-synchronous orbit satellite in a space mission called NUSES, developed by a collaboration between universities, research institutes and private companies. Another challenging goal of the instrument is the detection of Earth-skimming neutrinos with energies above ~10 PeV. In order to detect such rare events, the SiPM (Silicon Photomultiplier) sensor technology has been chosen to cover the foreseen dynamic range of the Cherenkov radiation (~320 to 550 nm). In this contribution we will focus on the innovative and custom front-end (FE) electronics and data acquisition (DAQ) system developed for the readout of the SiPM’s output signals in Terzina. The FE electronics is based on a configurable 64-channel ASIC implemented in commercial 65 nm CMOS technology. The ASIC is able to sample and digitise pulses at 200 MHz rate by using Wilkinson-type ADCs (Analog-to-Digital Converters). A custom DAQ, entirely based on FPGAs, is used to control the ASIC configuration, process L1 trigger information and read the ASIC output data, that is, the SiPM events. A data concentrator was also designed, with a SoC FPGA, to perform, among other tasks: event building, event timestamp with accuracy in the order of a few nanoseconds, monitoring and SiPM HV compensation.

Speaker: Dr Herman Pessoa Lima Júnior (Gran Sasso Science Institute)

picture_HermanPessoa.jpeg

poster-16thPisaMeeting2024-HermanPessoa.pdf

279 Analog Front-End for the Readout of LGAD Based Particle Detectors

Charge resolution in cosmic-ray based experiments for the identification of individual elemental species with high energies (above hundreds of GeV) suffers from the presence of backscattered radiation originating from the calorimeter. A means to efficiently reject backscattered radiation consists in developing particle detectors with sub-ns time resolution capabilities to perform Time-of-Flight (ToF) measurements.
In this regard, this work will present the design of an analog front-end channel, developed in the framework of the ADA-5D project (funded by the National Institute for Nuclear Physics, INFN) to be used for the readout of an innovative particle detector based on arrays of Low Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGADs) for the next generation of space-borne experiments. Accounting for a typical flight time between the detector and the calorimeter of around 700 ps, the proposed front-end circuit has been designed to work over a range of input charge larger than three decades (from tens of fC to few pC), achieving a time resolution better than 100 − 150 ps (which is required to efficiently reject backscattered radiation to better than five sigma). The front-end circuit consists of a Charge Sensitive Amplifier (CSA) implementing a dynamic signal compression feature to achieve improved noise performance, along with enhanced time resolution capabilities over the wide range of input charge to be detected. The CSA is then followed by an RC-CR shaper, a fast comparator and a Time-to-Amplitude Converter (TAC). In the conference paper, the analog front-end designed for the ADA-5D project will be discussed, along with post-layout simulation results. Specific design choices, described in the final paper, have been adopted to comply with the timing specification set by the foreseen application. Eventually, measurement results relevant to the main blocks of the front-end circuit will be provided.

Speaker: Simone Giroletti (Università di Pavia / INFN)

Giroletti picture-Giroletti.jpg poster-Giroletti.pdf

280 A flexible data acquisition system for the MEDIPIX family detectors

We present the development of a configurable data acquisition system for detectors using either the Timepix4 or Medipix4 ASIC as an integrated front-end.
The Timepix4 and Medipix4, developed by the CERN Medipix Collaboration, are $65~\mathrm{nm}$ CMOS ASIC designed for hybrid pixel detectors for medical and particle physics applications.

We will describe fully customizable system based on commercial hardware and standard communication protocols allowing for high reusability in different projects.
Customization is provided by an open-source fully configurable firmware and a software.

The system is based on a AMD/Xilinx KCU105 development kit and uses a standard VITA 57.1 connector as interface to the detector.
This allows for reliable connection while exploiting a maximum input bandwidth of up to 80Gbps coming form the ASICs.
The use of HDL on git (Hog) features allows for an easy configuration of the modules to be instantiated in the FPGA fabric allowing user full flexibility on the peripherals to be used.
The DAQ configuration is performed using a dedicated 1G ethernet connection implementing the IPbus protocol.
Partial reconfiguration regions may be used for fully custimizable on-line data-reduction methods allowing to read back data using two 10G ethernet connections implementing the downstream data-path.

This approach has many hidden challanges both on the technical and distribution level discussed in the presentation.

Speaker: Nicolò Vladi Biesuz (INFN - Ferrara)

picture-Biesuz-PM24.jpg

poster-Biesuz-PM24.pdf

281 Total Ionizing Dose Testing of Radiation-Hardened Silicon Photonic Mach-Zehnder Modulators

Silicon photonics (SiPh) technologies have started to be evaluated to assist the evolution of the electro-optical transceivers (TRXs) deployed inside data readout links in high-energy physics (HEP) experiments. Preliminary results indicate that SiPh circuits can effectively operate in environments with high levels of both ionizing and non-ionizing radiation [1,2]. In the recent years, focused research activities have aimed to combine the proven capabilities of high-speed and power-efficient communication inherent in SiPh solutions with the extreme radiation tolerance requirements of HEP environments. The development of fully-integrated SiPh-based TRXs thus necessitates radiation-hard modulating devices. However, these components must also meet appropriate performance levels to align with the optical and electrical power budgets of HEP communication links, which strongly depend on the actual modulator design.
At the core of all-silicon integrated high-speed photonic modulators are PN junction-based phase shifters. These PN junctions, embedded in integrated waveguides to transfer electrical modulation to optical waves, have been found to be extremely sensitive to ionizing radiation exposure. However, by acting on design parameters such as dopant concentration and optical waveguide geometry, radiation hardness in compliance with the innermost detector layers of HL-LHC experiments has been achieved also for these SiPh devices [1,2]. Unfortunately, these parameters are directly linked to nominal component performances, including modulation efficiency or optical propagation losses, which may, in turn, be adversely affected by radiation [3]. Henceforth, a design trade-off must be achieved to operate these devices in the optimal way.
Several Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZMs), designed in the context of INFN’s FALAPHEL project with different phase shifting cross-sections, will be presented to thoroughly explore the design space of radiation-hard-by-design (RHBD) PN junction-based modulators. This contribution will present the impact of radiation hardening techniques on device performance metrics.

continues in the attached .pdf file

Speaker: Simone Cammarata (INFN - Pisa)

picture_Cammarata_PisaMeeting2024.jpeg

poster_Cammarata_PisaMeeting2024.pdf

282 Characterisation studies of two front-end electronics chips designed for SiPM readout

A new front-end ASIC named "PIST" (pico-second timing) has been successfully developed using 55 nm CMOS technology for the silicon photomulplier (SiPM) readout with a single channel with a major aim of fast timing. We performed extensive tests to evaluate the timing performance of a dedicated test stand equipped with a PIST chip. The results show that the system timing resolution can sub 10 ps for large SiPM signals, while the PIST intrinsic timing resolution is better than 5 ps. The PIST dynamic range has been further extended using the time-over-threshold (ToT) technique.

Meanwhile, we fully characterised a newly developed commercial SiPM-readout 32-channel ASIC for developments of future high-granularity crystal calorimetry, including the single photon calibration and the dynamic range of different gain regions. Other promising potentials include fast timing resolution, fast readout speed and low power dissipation. Comprehensive measurements were made with a laser beam and high-energy particle beams with crystals and SiPMs. Firest testing results show that this chip has an excellent signal-to-noise and a large dynamic range.

This presentation will introduce the ASICs as well as dedicated test stands and also present highlighted results including the timing resolution, single photon calibration and dynamic range.

Speaker: Yong Liu (Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS)

picture-YongLiu.png

PM2024_Readout_Electronics_Poster_v2.pdf

283 First results on the final readout chip for the High-Luminosity LHC upgrade of the CMS Inner Tracker

The CMS Readout Chip (CROC) is a 65 nm CMOS hybrid pixel readout chip for the High Luminosity LHC upgrade of the CMS Inner Tracker. The new detector will be instrumented with approximately $1.3 \times 10^{4}$ of these readout chips, covering an area of about 5.2 m$^{2}$.

The chip has been developed by the CERN/RD53 Collaboration in order to withstand very high radiation doses (500 Mrad) and hit rates (up to 3 GHz/cm$^{2}$ at pileup 200 on the innermost tracking layer) during operation. Moreover, it must handle an increased sensor granularity (pixel cell size of 2500 $\mu$m$^{2}$) with respect to current detectors and operate at low detection thresholds (1000 e$^{-}$).

Twenty wafers of the prototype chip (CROCv1) have been produced in 2021, amounting to 2760 chips. The prototype chip has been thoroughly studied and its suitability for operation at HL-LHC has been assessed. The chip has been studied in single-chip assemblies, in prototype detector modules with bump-bonded sensors, and at wafer level. The performance of fresh and irradiated CROCv1 ASICs has also been studied in several beam tests, bump-bonded to sensors with different technologies (planar, 3D). The characterisation and verification campaign has, overall, demonstrated the radiation resistance of the chip and its performance, but a few improvements have been identified. These improvements have been implemented in the final version of the chip (CROCv2) that has been submitted in October 2023. Sixteen wafers from the engineering run have been received in January 2024.

In this talk, the first results from the testing of the CROCv2 engineering run, amounting to more than 2000 chips, will be outlined.

Speaker: Michael Grippo (INFN - Torino)

picture-grippo.jpg

poster-crocv2-grippo-pisameet16.pdf

poster-crocv2-grippo-pisameet16-v1p1.pdf

284 A 64-channel zone-sampling based ASIC for Cherenkov light detection from sub-orbital and orbital altitudes

This work describes the implementation of a 64-channel ASIC developed in a commercial 65 nm CMOS technology to readout the signals collected by a camera plane made of Silicon Photo-Multipliers. The aim of the application is the identification of Extensive Air Showers by detecting optical Cherenkov light generated by Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays and Cosmic Neutrinos from sub-orbital and orbital altitudes. In this context, the ASIC is designed to store each event into an analog memory based on 256 configurable cells per channel. Then the chip forms a hitmap sent to an FPGA to recognize a pattern of interest. If the signal is externally validated, the digital conversion can occur on-board using an array of 12-bits Wilkinson analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) at 200 MHz of clock. The readout is realized with two serializers running at 400 MHz in double data rate (DDR). Both the number of cells and the resolution can be configured into partitions of 32, 64 or 256 cells and in the range 8-12 bits respectively, becoming a key feature of this ASIC. The chip submission and testing are planned for the forthcoming months.

Speaker: Andrea Di Salvo (INFN - Torino)

picture-Andrea_Di_Salvo.jpg

poster-Andrea_Di_Salvo.pdf

285 Readout Studies for the HIKE Main Electromagnetic Calorimeter

The High Intensity Kaon Experiment (HIKE) is a proposed experimental setup to be installed at the ECN3 beamline in CERN after the 2026-2029 shutdown period. It initially aims at further probing the $K^+\to\pi^+\nu\overline{\nu}$ to a precision of 5%, complemented by a diverse array of other rare $K^+$ decays. Following this phase, HIKE will focus on a neutral $K_L$ beamline for the remainder of its data taking, the kaon data collection will be complemented by beam-dump measurements to search for feebly interacting particles. The experimental setup builds upon the proven NA62 layout, exploiting the same boosted kinematic approach and an efficient photon identification and veto system to reject backgrounds. To sustain a fourfold increase in kaon beam rate, the HIKE experiment requires a substantial improvement in all the detector timing, particularly in the veto system, to minimize the random veto effects. In particular, the new fine-sampling shashlyk Main Electromagnetic Calorimeter (MEC) has a design time resolution goal of $\approx 100\; \mathrm{ps}$ while maintaining an energy resolution comparable with NA62 Liquid Krypton calorimeter.
In this contribution to the conference, we present research and development activities in investigating readout options for the MEC. We present firmware prototypes implemented in Xilinx Ultrascale+ FPGAs processing data from commercial off-the-shelf analog-to-digital converters running at 1 Gsps sample rate with a 14-bit dynamic range. One of the goals of this work is to investigate real-time data reduction techniques, including feature extraction and zero suppression, in view of HIKE’s streaming data acquisition system. Moreover, we study solutions for fixed-phase clock distribution and synchronization among multiple boards to guarantee a coherent detector readout. We will finally describe the flexibility of our solution, which also features standard Gigabit Ethernet data output for usage in prototypal test beams.

Speaker: Marco Francesconi (INFN - Napoli)

picture-francesconi.jpg

poster-francesconi.pdf

286 A novel real-time control system for next generation gravitational waves detectors

This contribution would like to present the architecture of a new Real-time Control System (RCS), intended to serve as the foundation for next generation large scale interferometers for the detection of gravitational waves. In particular, the initial phase of Einstein Telescope (ET) detector is the target for this development.

The RCS coordinates complex closed-loop systems, managing data collection from sensing elements, processing and actuator control within well defined time constraints. It is a very complex object tasked with managing multiple control units, distributed in space, facilitating their intercommunication, and handling communications with users and other systems.

Two distinct hardware approaches, "Katane" and "Zancle," are explored. The primary difference is the main processing element on which each system is based. “Katane” system, is built on powerful DSP processor boards, drawing inspiration from the Super-Attenuator control system, developed in Pisa for Advanced Virgo detector, while “Zancle” investigates the feasibility of GPU-based processing.

“Katane” is based on a MicroTCA.4 standard architecture ensuring flexibility, easy maintenance, and fast data exchange among its various custom modules. These modules include high-precision, low-noise Front-End data converter boards, FPGA-based pre-processing boards, and standard CPUs. The “Katane” project has progressed to an advanced stage, featuring the design of main boards. Substantial development and testing efforts have been invested in creating firmware and software dedicated to system control and monitoring.

On the other hand, "Zancle" is not presently based on MicroTCA standard. However, this project aims to employ cost-effective systems designed for the consumer market. Currently, our focus is on testing the feasibility of utilizing direct memory access (DMA) techniques to diminish the latency of data exchange between GPU and data converters. This effort aims to capitalize on the significant computational power offered by these elements and leverage the use of machine learning algorithms.

Speaker: Paolo Prosperi (INFN - Pisa)

picture_Prosperi.jpg

Poster_PM2024_Prosperi.pdf

287 Status of the Mu2e calorimeter readout electronic

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for the charged-lepton flavour violating conversion of negative muons into electrons in the coulomb field of an Al nucleus, planning to reach a single event sensitivity of about 3x10−17, four orders of magnitude beyond the current best limit. The conversion electron has a monoenergetic signature at  105 MeV and will be identified by a high-resolution straw tracker and an electromagnetic calorimeter (EMC) done with pure CsI crystals and custom SiPMs.

The readout electronic consists of a custom front-end board, located near the SiPMs and a digitizer and data transmission board hosted in crates surrounding the calorimeter disks, inside the detector solenoid cryostat.
Each front-end board handles the signal from a SiPM and provides amplification, shaping and low noise regulation of the bias voltage. To limit the noise two front-end boards are boxed in a copper faraday cage and the output signal is converted to differential.
The digitizer board (DIRAC) receives up to 20 analog signals from front-end through a mezzanine board and convert to digital. Monte Carlo simulations have shown that a conversion rate of 200 MHz–12 bits is optimal to achieve the required energy (10%) and time resolution (500 ps). Digitized data are stored in a memory and are transmitted to the upper levels of DAQ through an optical fiber that also carries clock and slow control in the same link. The readout of the full calorimeter is handled by 140 DIRAC boards plus mezzanines and 2696 front-end boards.
The electronic will be operated in an harsh environment and has been extensively qualified to be used in high magnetic field, vacuum and high levels of ionizing and non- ionizing radiation. Front-end boards are already installed in the calorimeter and DIRAC boards are ongoing.

Speaker: Franco Spinella (INFN - Pisa)

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poster_PM2024_spinella.pdf

288 Results from Cryo-PoF: power over fiber for fundamental and applied physics at cryogenic temperature.

The power over fiber (PoF) technology delivers electrical power by sending laser light through an optical fiber to a photovoltaic power converter, in order to power sensors or electrical devices.
This solution offers several advantages: removal of noise induced by power lines, robustness in a hostile environment, spark free operation when electric fields are present and no interference with electromagnetic fields.
This technology is at the basis of the Cryo-PoF project: an R&D funded by the Italian Insitute for Nuclear Research (INFN) in Milano-Bicocca (Italy).
This project is inspired by the needs of the DUNE Vertical Drift detector, where the VUV light of liquid argon must be collected at the cathode, i.e. on a surface whose voltage exceeds 300 kV.
We developed a cryogenic system, which is solely based on optoelectronic devices and a single laser input line, to power both the Photon Detection devices and its electronic amplifier.
In this talk the results obtained in Milano- Bicocca will be presented with emphasis on performance and potential application in the field of applied physics.

Speaker: Marta Torti (INFN - Milano Bicocca)

picture-Torti.jpg

poster-Torti.pdf

289 The New Small Wheel Trigger for the ATLAS experiment

The ATLAS New Small Wheel (NSW) Muon spectrometer upgrade was completed in 2022 and constituted the largest detector upgrade in Phase I among the LHC experiments. The main purpose of NSW is to provide triggering capabilities in the endcap region 1.3 <|η|<2.4 for conMirming muons coming from the interaction point and reject the large fake contribution from the endcap region. It provides also improved muon tracking capability in the endcap, as it is equipped with 2.5 million channels with high spatial resolution of about 100 μm for every one of the 16 layers. The NSW Trigger is based on both the sTGC and the Micromegas technologies that form the basis of the detector operation. It is a Level_1 trigger capable to provide trigger in every Bunch Crossing (BC) at Mixed low latency (44BC). In 2023 the NSW Trigger was integrated in ATLAS offering critical fake rate rejection, reducing thus the overall readout deadtime of the experiment. We will present the architecture of the NSW Trigger system that is based in custom made electronics, capable to collect the trigger information, process it and efMiciently trigger on IP muons. We will concentrate in the sTGC Pad trigger that was fully operational as well as the Micromegas part that was included in the last runs. Performance studies of the NSW Trigger, using pp collisions at 13.6 TeV, will be presented. NSW is capable of operating in the HL-LHC era. The perspectives of the Phase II NSW Trigger upgrade will be given.

Speaker: Olga Zormpa (NCSR Demokritos)

photo-PisaMeeting2024-OZormpa.jpg

poster-PisaMeeting2024-OZormpa.pdf

Low Temperature, Quantum and Emerging Technologies - Poster Session

This session will be on display on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning
Link to the contributions

12:30 Lunch break

Electronics and On-Detector Processing - Oral session

Conveners: Chiara Guazzoni (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Giovanna Lehmann (CERN)

290 Design of a 40 GS/sec 20 mw/Channel Waveform Sampling ASIC in 65 nm CMOS

TThe development of large-area MCP-based particle detectors with time resolutions
of ≤5 ps [1] would allow substantive advances in particle identification at particle colliders.
We describe a preliminary design for a 7+1-channel 40 GS/sec waveform sampling ASIC in
the TSMC 65 nm process with the goal of achieving 1 ps resolution at 20 mW power per
channel. Each channel consists of four fast buffers and a slow buffer. The fast buffer is 1.6
ns long and has a nominal sampling rate of 40 GSa/second. The slow buffer is 204.8 ns long
and samples at 5 GSa/second, useful at identifying pile-up and the temporal context for
unusual signals. Recording of the data for each channel is triggered by a fast discriminator
capable of multiple triggering during the window of the slow buffer.
The sampling switches are implemented as 2.5V nMOSFETs controlled by 1.2V shift
registers in order to achieve a large dynamic range, low leakage, and high bandwidth. Stored
data are exported to be digitized by an external ADC at 10 bits or better.
Specifications on operational parameters include a 4 GHz analog bandwidth and a
deadtime of 20 microseconds, corresponding to a 50 kHz readout rate, determined by the
choice of the external ADC.
I will present the current status.

Speaker: Jinseo Park (University of Chicago)

PISA_2024_PSEC5.pdf

291 ASICs for "5D calorimetry" at OMEGA

Calorimeters have recently evolved to provide much more granularity in order to better identify particles inside showers and improve the energy resolution, in particular for jets. “Imaging calorimetry” has been studied in detail by the CALICE collaboration since the mid-2000s and more recently chosen by the CMS experiment to equip its endcap calorimeter. Imaging calorimetry increases by one or two orders of magnitude the number of channels and requires readout electronics embedded onto the detectors. Also recently, timing information with a few tens of picoseconds accuracy has been added to the energy measurements and provides valuable supplementary information known as “5D-calorimetry”. All these improvements have been made possible by high performance readout ASICs, handling the large calorimeter dynamic range with high speed low noise performance while operating at low power (<20 mW/ch). In the future, granularity will continue to increase, requiring even lower power operation, down to few mW/ch. This will be achieved by further progress on the analog front-end and also advanced on-chip data processing auto-triggering and data streaming, all made possible by lower occupancy.
OMEGA laboratory has been developing the SKIROC/SPIROC/HARDROC ASIC family for the CALICE readout and more recently HGCROC for CMS HGCAL, which is now undergoing its final tests before fabrication for the HL LHC. Their design and performance will be recalled and the architectural choices and prototypes in design for the future experiments (EIC, ILC, FCC…) will be presented, in particular for large SiPM readout with precise timing.

Speaker: Christophe de la Taille (OMEGA CNRS / IN2P3)

CdLT_Elba_31may2024.pdf

292 CRYO: The Charge Readout ASIC for nEXO in Liquid Xenon (LXe)

The nEXO project spearheads scientific exploration with a primary focus on unraveling the mysteries of neutrinoless double-beta (0vββ) decay, offering profound insights into fundamental particle physics. At its core, the nEXO experiment employs a single-phase liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chamber (TPC), housing ~5000 kg of xenon enriched to 90% in the isotope 136. This cutting-edge detector is pivotal for conducting one of the most sensitive searches for this rare decay, deemed a top priority by the nuclear physics community.

Tailored for nEXO, the CRYO ASIC serves as the charge readout, processing signals within the liquid xenon chamber for the study of 0νββ and other rare events. The ASIC features a compact system-on-chip (SoC) design, with a small 7mm x 9mm form factor. It amplifies and digitizes signals generated from the LXe TPC, facilitating the transmission of digital data to the DAQ boards for further analysis. Engineered to operate reliably in extreme cryogenic environments, the CRYO ASIC demonstrates promising performance in liquid xenon during its R&D prototyping phase, approaching compliance with the nEXO’s stringent requirements.

In this talk, we will delve into the cryogenic test bench system designed for ASIC characterization at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). We will present experimental results in both gas xenon and liquid xenon environments. The discussion will also encompass the ASIC architecture, highlighting potential enhancements for its final implementation. The emphasis will be on further simplifying the I/O requirements at the system level and ensuring alignment with nEXO's low radiopurity specifications.

Speaker: Aldo Pena Perez (SLAC / Stanford University)

CRYO ASIC for nEXO in LXe_final.pdf

293 ALCOR: a mixed-signal ASIC for the dRICH detector of the ePIC experiment at the EIC

We present a mixed-signal ASIC, called ALCOR (A Low-power Chip for Optical sensor Readout), designed for the readout and digitization of signals from Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) in the framework of the dual-radiator RICH (dRICH) detector of the ePIC experiment at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).
ALCOR features 32 channels arranged in an 8x4 matrix. The amplifier input stage is a low impedance current conveyor based on a regulated common-gate topology to preserve the steep rising edge of the SiPM signal. The versatile front-end is able to work with positive or negative input polarity signals and includes four gain settings and two discriminators with 6-bit DAC programmable thresholds. Each channel also incorporates quad-buffered low-power TDCs based on analogue interpolation providing precise timestamping with a 25-50 ps time bin, while the signal amplitude can be derived from the time-over-threshold (ToT) measurement. The ASIC data-push architecture features a fully-digital output with a maximum event rate of 2 MHz (1 MHz) per channel when operating the chip in single-photon counting mode (ToT mode). ALCOR is designed in a 110 nm CMOS technology and the power consumption is less than 10 mW per channel.
ALCOR has been extensively tested in the laboratory standalone and coupled to different SiPM models to assess its functionality and performance. The results have been validated in a beam test campaign with a prototype of the dRICH detector and 1280 3x3 mm² SiPM sensors. Radiation tolerance tests for total dose and single-event upset have also been performed.
In this presentation, a detailed description of the ALCOR chip architecture will be given and the main results from the ASIC electrical characterization and tests with SiPM sensors will be discussed, as well as the plans for the chip final version in which new, EIC-driven, functionalities will be implemented.

Speaker: Fabio Cossio (INFN - Torino)

PM2024_CossioFabio_ALCOR.pdf

294 On novel front-end electronics for the ATLAS BI RPC upgrade at HL-LHC developed in SiGe BiCMOS technology with a high-resolution rad-hard Time-To-Digital converter embedded

The High Luminosity phase of LHC will require a huge improvement on the ATLAS detector in terms of performance, being the entire apparatus operated in much harsher conditions. The BI project is one of the ATLAS Phase-2 approved upgrades, ensuring the demands coming from the physics for the next 20 years. In this framework, a novel dedicated Front-End electronics has been developed, which exploits a BJT-based preamplifier, a fast discriminator and a high resolution (<100ps) Time-To-Digital converter in SiGe BiCMOS technology, to vastly enhance the detector rate capability.
This front-end electronics is integrated for the first time within the detector faraday cage, largely reducing the effects of spurious noise and allowing a minimum effective charge threshold on the induced signal of 1-2 fC. The integration of the front-end electronics directly within the detector Faraday cage is also permitted by the low power consumption of 15 mW/ch.
The RPC coupled with this novel front-end electronics represents a new generation of large area timing detectors, granting a record time resolution of 350 ps on a single gas gap of 1 mm with 1.4 mm electrodes thickness and operated with the ATLAS standard gas mixture. The effect of the extremely low threshold has also an impact on the gas mixture, enabling the usage of eco-friendly gas mixtures which would not be usable elsewise.
The latest performance of this newly developed front-end electronics along with the results achieved with RPC detector coupled with it will be shown.

Speaker: Luca Pizzimento (University of Hong Kong)

Pisameeting_05_24_LP.pdf

Pisameeting_05_24_LP.pptx

17:10 Coffee break

295 ToASt : a 64-channel ASIC for the readout of the Silicon Strip Detectors of the PANDA experiment

The design of the Micro Vertex Detector (MVD) for the PANDA experiment is optimized for the detection of secondary vertices and maximum acceptance close to the interaction point. The MVD consists of a 4-layer barrel section, placed around the interaction point, and a 6-disks forward section, located in the forward position. The outermost layers of the MVD will be equipped with double sided Silicon Strip Detectors (SSDs).
The SSD electronic readout must provide both the spatial position and the energy deposited by the impinging particles. Moreover, since PANDA is a triggerless experiment, each event must be tagged with its time of arrival (ToA).
In order to cope with these requirements a 64-channel dedicated ASIC, named ToASt, has been designed and tested. Each channel includes a charge-sensitiveamplifier, a current mode shaper, a linear time over threshold (ToT) stage and double threshold discrimination. A 12-bit time stamp is distributed to allchannels; its value at the two edges of the output comparator is stored, thus providing both ToA and ToT. The two values are immediately readout by a digital interface, formatted in 32-bit words and transmitted via two 160 MS/s serial links.
ToASt is designed in a commercial 110 nm CMOS technology. The die size is
4.4$\times$3.2 mm$^2$; the input pads are located on one side of the die while all other pads are on the opposite side, thus allowing multiple dies being placed very close to each other. The digital logic has been triplicated for Single-Event Upset (SEU) protection.
ToASt has been extensively tested in laboratory standalone and connected to a detector, showing excellent performances. It has also been used in a beam test at the COSY facility in Juelich. Radiation tolerance tests for total dose and SEU have also been performed.

Speaker: Giovanni Mazza (INFN - Torino)

PM2024_ID241.pdf

296 Tests and Characterization of a Mixed-Signal Read Out ASIC for Silicon Micro-Strip Detectors

ASTRA-64 (Adaptable Silicon sTrip Read-out ASIC) is a 64-channel mixed-signal ASIC designed for reading out micro-strip silicon detectors. Its initial application is on serving as the read-out for the Silicon Charge Detector of the HERD experiment, slated for installation aboard the Chinese space station in 2027 to facilitate tracking and supplementary charge measurement. Designed using 110 nm technology, ASTRA-64 comprises two identical mirrored blocks, each accommodating 32 channels. Each channel integrates a Charge-Sensitive Amplifier featuring two programmable gain settings suitable for both positive and negative input signal polarities. Following this is a shaper with adjustable peaking time, allowing for noise performance optimization based on the detector capacitance. The front-end gain is calibrated to enable linear charge measurement of up to 160 fC and 80 fC depending on the gain configuration. ASTRA-64 offers two distinct readout modes. In the analog readout mode, sampled voltages are sent off-chip via an analog multiplexer linked with a differential output buffer. Conversely, the digital readout mode employs a Wilkinson ADC in each channel to digitize sampled voltages, with a shared serializer transmitting digital data through an SLVS driver. Additionally, a fast shaper, in tandem with a leading-edge hysteresis discriminator, is integrated, and the outputs of the 32 channel discriminators are merged using a FAST-OR logic to produce a rapid trigger signal off-chip. Remarkably, the ASIC's power dissipation is kept below 600 µW per channel, aligning with stringent power consumption requirements for space applications. We will present the tests, characterization, and performance of ASTRA-64.

Speaker: Mattia Barbanera (INFN - Perugia)

Barbanera_PM24

297 40MHz Readout of CMS Silicon Modules in a High Intensity Beam

In order to maintain its outstanding performance under the challenging conditions brought by the high-luminosity LHC, the CMS collaboration is preparing the production of a new outer tracker detector. The upgraded detector modules will feature two silicon sensors and the ability of reading out correlated clusters, or stubs, compatible with high transverse momentum particles at the full 40 MHz collision rate. With the detector design being finalized and mass production planned to start during the second half of 2024, the scalability of the read-out system and the study of the commissioning and characterization of the detector in realistic conditions are ever-more pressing.

In this context, a joint beam-test was organised in partnership with the MUonE collaboration where twelve modules were placed in an asynchronous muon beam line reaching particle rates of about 50 MHz, with the full stub stream being recorded to disk triggerless. The experiment and read-out chain will be outlined, the commissioning procedures and operational challenges will be discussed and resulting system performance will be presented. From these results, the future prospects for both experiments will be discussed, as well as the milestones reached and still lying ahead before the full systems could be deployed.

Speaker: David Monk (Northwestern University)

40MHz readout of CMS silicon modules in a high intensity beam-5.pdf

298 Detector-embedded reconstruction of complex primitives using FPGAs

The slowdown of Moore’s law and the growing requirements of future HEP experiments with ever-increasing data rates pose important computational challenges for data reconstruction and trigger systems, encouraging the exploration of new computing methodologies.
In this talk we discuss a FPGA-based tracking system, based on a massively parallel pattern recognition approach, inspired by the processing of visual images by the natural brain ("retina architecture"). This method allows a large efficiency of utilization of the hardware, low power consumption and very low latencies. Based on this approach, a device has been designed within the LHCb Upgrade-II project, with the goal of performing track reconstruction in the forward acceptance region in real-time during the upcoming Run 4 of the LHC. This innovative device will perform track reconstruction before the event-building, in a short enough time to provide pre-reconstructed tracks ("primitives") transparently to the processor farm, as if they had been generated directly by the detector. This allows significant savings in higher-level computing resources, enabling handling higher luminosities than otherwise possible. The feasibility of the project is backed up by the results of tests performed on a realistic hardware prototype, that has been processing actual LHCb data during the 2023 run, operating in parallel with the regular DAQ chain of the experiment.

Speaker: Giovanni Punzi (Università di Pisa / INFN)

Punzi_PM2024.pdf

299 An FPGA-based Trigger for the QTNM Experiment

The Quantum Technologies for Neutrino Mass (QTNM) project aims to measure the neutrino mass through a precise measurement of the electron kinetic energy spectrum of atomic tritium beta decay. The aim is to use the newly developed Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES) technique to make frequency measurements of radiation emitted by electrons undergoing cyclotron motion in a strong magnetic field. This frequency is directly related to the electron’s kinetic energy, so a precise frequency measurement can form a precise energy measurement.
A trigger is necessary for QTNM to avoid collecting extremely large amounts of data containing no electrons of interest. However, the electrons emit very low amounts of power, so thermal and amplifier noise dominate the received signal. In addition, CRES signals are chirps that increase in frequency as the electron loses energy. These factors necessitate a more atypical form of trigger that responds to these signals in high noise conditions.
Two forms of trigger have been developed for this purpose, one matched filter trigger and one lock-in amplifier based trigger. Both have been implemented on an FPGA based system.
In this presentation, I will show the development and characterisation of the performance of these triggers on CRES-like signals for the QTNM project.

Speaker: Daniel Swinnock (University of Warwick)

DSwinnock Pisa Presentation.pdf

Detector Techniques for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics - Poster session

This session will be on display on Thursday morning and Friday afternoon.
Link to the contributions

Gas Detectors - Poster session

This session will be on display on Thursday morning and Friday afternoon.
Link to the contributions

300 Study of time-dependent instrumental effects in IXPE: pressure variation and GEM charging inside Gas Pixel Detector

Launched on December 9, 2021, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is the first
mission entirely devoted to astronomical X-ray polarimetry in the 2--8 keV energy band.
At the heart of the observatory is a set of three identical, sealed, gas pixel detectors
(GPDs) sensitive to polarization. Alongside their primary function, GPDs offer
simultaneous imaging, timing, and spectroscopic capabilities with moderate resolution.
In this contribution we focus on two time-dependent instrumental phenomena, originally
identified during the development phase of the mission, which necessitate continuous
monitoring throughout the mission's operational phase. Firstly, a secular decrease of the
pressure in the sealed gas cell, due to internal adsorption of the filling dimethyl ether
(DME) with a time scale of months and an asymptotic pressure reduction of 10--20%, has
been observed. Although largely saturated prior to launch, the residual, slow variations in
quantum efficiency, gain and track size are still relevant enough that they need to be
accounted for in the analysis. To this end, we have considered two parallel paths: the
monitoring of a set of sealed control detectors, identical to those currently operating in
space, and the analysis on fluxed detectors in a custom gas filling station, that allows to
study the pressure dependence of the relevant metrics under controlled conditions.
Secondly, we address charge build-up in the dielectric layer of the Gas Electron Multiplier
(GEM), the amplification stage of the detector, with time scales ranging from hours to
days. This charging phenomenon induces a decrease in detector gain under irradiation,
gradually recovering once irradiation ceases, akin to the behaviour of a capacitor. To
mitigate this effect, our data analysis pipeline incorporates a correction algorithm based
on dedicated measurements performed on flight detectors pre-launch and updated
through the continuous gain monitoring performed using onboard calibration sources.

Speaker: Chiara Tomaiuolo (Università di Pisa / INFN)

poste_66.pdf

WhatsApp Image 2024-05-20 at 11.43.28.jpeg

301 Effect of an electronegative additive on the electroluminescence yield of a noble gas

Gaseous detectors are versatile devices that, despite their longevity, have known recently increasing fields of application, namely in the demanding rare-event search large-scale experiments. This recent increase in popularity can mostly be accounted by their capability to accommodate the features required by these experiments. One of these features is tracking which allows for particle identification and efficient background rejection. In these large-scale experiments when event tracking is required, one of the biggest constraints is electron diffusion especially relevant when the detection medium is a noble gas. Molecular additives are the traditional solution but they don’t come without side thus other solutions have been sought. One of these is considering the possibility of having negative ions as charge carriers through the use of the Negative Ion Time Projection Chambers (NITPCs), exploring the fact that anions have a much smaller diffusion than electrons.
Another advantage of using the negative ions as charge carriers is the fact that different anion species can be formed, from which z-fiducialization can be achieved.
To consider the adoption of this technique, other conditions have to be met besides electron attachment and subsequent extraction efficiencies from the electronegative additive. One question to be addressed, is that gas detectors usually need an amplification stage, which can take the form of charge multiplication or electroluminescence production. The effect of the electronegative component in these processes must be investigated. Regarding electroluminescence, to our knowledge, no results exist. The goal of this presentation is to assess the effect of the addition of a small fraction of electronegative component (in our case SF6) on the electroluminescence yield of a noble gas (xenon). A systematic study will be presented, as a function of the negative additive concentration, for SF6-xenon mixtures at atmospheric pressure, using a gas proportional scintillation counter.

Speaker: Filomena Santos (Universidade de Coimbra)

PISA 2024.pdf

302 Study of environment-friendly gas mixtures for the Resistive Plate Chambers of the ATLAS phase-2 upgrade

The standard gas mixture for the Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC), composed of C2H2F4/i-C4H10/SF6, allows the detector operation in avalanche mode, as required by the high-luminosity collider experiments. The gas density, the low current and the comfortable avalanche-streamer separation guarantee high detection efficiency, rate capability and slow detector ageing. This gas mixture has a high Global Warming Potential (GWP∼1430) mainly due to the presence of C2H2F4 . The C2H2F4 and SF6 are not recommended for industrial uses anymore, thus their availability will be increasingly difficult over time and the search for an alternative gas mixture is then of absolute priority within the RPC community. Moreover, CERN is pursuing a campaign toward the reduction of these gases, because they represent most of the LHC particle detectors greenhouse gas emission. Within the ATLAS experiment, the search for an environment-friendly gas mixture involves both the legacy system and the new generation of RPC detectors foreseen for the HL-LHC. In the latter case, the choice of the gas mixture is critical because the thin gas gap width, 1 mm, needs a high-density gas in order to achieve high efficiency, due to the less active target available for the primary ionization. The mixture should also guarantee good timing performance and ensure the detector longevity. The results obtained on an upgrade production chamber operated with alternative gas mixtures are shown, following two different approaches. The first study consists in the replacement of the C2H2F4 with a mixture of C3H2F4/CO2 (GWP ∼ 200). The second approach consists in adding a modest fraction of CO2 in the standard gas, with the aim to reduce the C2H2F4 emissions and avoid critical impact on the detector ageing. A comprehensive study of the active target, thus efficiency, is given, along with the time resolution and current in different background irradiation environment.

Speaker: Giorgia Proto (Max-Planck Institut für Physik)

picture-Giorgia-Proto.jpg

poster-Giorgia-Proto.pdf

303 The MEG-II cylindrical drift chamber performances for exotic searches at various momenta

The MEG II experiment has been searching for the charged lepton flavor-violating decay $\mu^+\to e^+\gamma$ since 2021. An integral component of the detector apparatus, fundamental to attain the projected experimental sensitivity, is the an ultra-light and highly segmented positron tracker. Achieving optimal performances rely on the software alignment of the tracker on data. In this context, we present the ongoing development of an algorithm for the software alignment of the MEG~II drift chamber based on the MillePede global approach. This method uses cosmic rays data collected during the 2022 and 2023 data taking period to disentangle the tracker wire-by-wire alignment and the relative alignment of the drift chamber with the magnetic field. The algorithm has been successfully tested on Monte Carlo simulations and is being validated on real cosmic rays data.

Speaker: Antoine Venturini (Università di Pisa / INFN)

picture-Venturini_CDCH.png

poster-PM2024_Venturini.pdf

304 µRTube: a new geometry concept for MPGD technologies

This project aims to develop a new detector concept that optimizes the Micro Pattern Gas Detector (MPGD) geometry for low cost and large area applications while keeping the same performance. The goal of the project is to carry out a full proof-of-concept of a tubular µRWELL detector (µRtube) and demonstrate its advantages studying specific applications. The project exploits the best features of several technologies, into an innovative geometry concept which allows for a sensible reduction of the number of electronics channels per unit area. The base element (a µRtube) is a cylindrically shaped gaseous detector. The internal surface is about 0.9cm in radius and contains a µRWELL, which works as an amplification stage and readout. The external sleeve is 18 cm in diameter and accommodates the cathode, completing a radial tubular TPC having a small internal surface used for the readout. The µRtube will bring the MPGD technology to the unprecedented curvature radius (~1 cm) for imaging and particle identification applications. The detection technique of the µRtube is based on the TPC approach where time information is used to reconstruct the ionizing particle path inside the drift volume. A radial electric field between cathode and anode is created, as in a wire detector: the field lines converge on the anode, which is segmented in strips or pads. Thanks to the convergence of the field lines, the electron diffusion is sensibly reduced with respect to a planar µRWELL. This allows for a readout of a large volume with a smaller number of electronic channels: a µRtube with 128 electronic channels will perform imaging in a cylinder of 18 cm diameter. Report on the detector concept, a full simulation of the detector and a validation with a testbeam will be presented

Speaker: Riccardo Farinelli (INFN - Ferrara)

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poster-farinelli.pdf

305 New Readout Scheme for Large Area Timing & Position RPCs

RPC detectors were already used in the past to perform the muon scattering tomography of several materials with high atomic number. RPCs are indeed well suited for muographic techniques since they can be built at relatively low cost, covering large areas with high efficiency, spatial and time resolutions. However, the front end electronics has a considerable impact on the detector cost, specially if one wants to scan volumes of several tens of cubic meters such as with the cargo inspection application for homeland security, which corresponds to the instrumentation of more than one hundred square meters of RPCs. Because of this, a new readout technique was developed with the initial premise of keeping the number of electronic channels as low as possible when scaling up the sensitive area. The developed codification significantly reduces the dependency of the number of channels on the detector area, without significant reduction of its performance. Preliminary tests using the new readout with a double timing RPC of 30 cm x 30 cm, equipped with 12 gaps of 300 um, showed a detector spatial resolution better than 1 mm and time resolution below 100 ps, while its efficiency is above 90%. More details about the setup, readout codification as well as preliminary results will be presented in this communication.

Speaker: João Pedro de Carvalho Saraiva (LIP Coimbra)

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poster-NewReadoutSchemeRPCs_Saraiva.pdf

306 New RPC Gas Mixtures for Sustainable Operation in the CMS Experiment

The current operation of the Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) system within the CMS experiment involves approximately 95% tetrafluoroethane (C2H2F4, TFE). However, in response to climate change concerns, the European Union has instituted a ban on TFE owing to its elevated Global Warming Potential (GWP), resulting in an associated increase in market prices. In this framework, shared endeavors within the RPC EcoGas@GIF++ Collaboration, have been dedicated to investigating novel ecological gas mixtures based on tetrafluoropropene (C3H2F4, HFO-1234ze) to ensure the sustainable functionality of RPCs. This presentation will delve into the performance outcomes derived from improved RPC gas gaps operating on HFO/CO2-based mixtures as ecologically viable alternatives, particularly in anticipation of the High Luminosity LHC phase. Additionally, the utilization of TFE/CO2 mixtures will be explored as a pragmatic strategy to swiftly alleviate gas-related operational costs.

Speaker: Dayron Ramos Lopez (INFN - Bari)

poster_RAMOS_PISA_3_21052024.pdf

307 Commissioning of the CGEM Inner Tracker

The extension of the BESIII experiment (IHEP, Beijing) till 2030 prompted a program to improve both the accelerator and the detector. In particular, the current inner drift chamber suffers from aging and it is proposed to replace it with a detector based on cylindrical GEM technology.
The CGEM tracker consists of three coaxial layers of triple GEM. The tracker is expected to restore efficiency, improve z-determination and secondary vertex position reconstruction compared to the current inner tracker, with a resolution of 130 μm in the xy-plane and better than 300 μm along the beam direction.
A special readout system was developed for data acquisition. The signals from the detector strips are processed by TIGER, a custom 64-channel ASIC developed in CMOS 110 nm UMC technology, providing analog charge readout via a fully digital output with linear charge readout up to about 50 fC and less than 3ns jitter. TIGER continuously transmits data across the threshold in triggerless mode to an FPGA-based readout module, the GEM Read Out Card, designed specifically for this system. The module configures the ASICs and organizes the incoming data by creating the event packets when the trigger arrives.
The three layers were assembled in October 2023, and a cosmic ray data collection campaign is underway to evaluate the performance of the CGEM tracker before installation.
In this presentation, the general status of the CGEM-IT project will be presented with a particular focus on the first results from cosmic ray detection.

Speaker: Stefano Gramigna (INFN - Ferrara)

picture-stefano_gramigna.jpg

poster-commissioning_of_the_cgem_detector-stefano_gramigna-rev2.pdf

308 Performances of ATLAS Micromegas detectors in high background environment and after long term irradiation at the Gamma Irradiation Facility at CERN

The ATLAS muon spectrometer will face an increase of particle rate consequently of the larger instantaneous luminosity for the high luminosity LHC phase (HL-LHC), expected to reach 7.5 x 10^34 cm^-2 s^-1.
Micromegas chambers are used in the New Small Wheel, the first end-cap muon spectrometer station, in order to provide good tracking and triggering performance at the intense particle rates expected in the end-cap of the ATLAS experiment.
The detectors are operated with Ar:CO2:iC4H10 93:5:2 vol% gas mixture, providing a
good HV stability and a large pulse height, useful for inclined track reconstruction.
Due to the hydrocarbon content in the mixture, an extensive long term irradiation campaign is ongoing at the Gamma Irradiation Facility at CERN, where spare production chambers are long term exposed to a 11.6 TBq 137Cs gamma source, accumulating so far a charge equivalent to several years of HL-LHC operations.
Several parameters have been studied to check the stability of the detector performances during and after the irradiation period, such as detector efficiency, tracking position and time resolution using the SPS H4 muon beam at CERN.
This contribution will describe the results obtained from the above studies, showing the good response of the detector after several 'HL-LHC equivalent' years of irradiation and demonstrating the robustness of ATLAS Micromegas detectors under intense particle rates.

Speaker: Valerio D'Amico (Universität München)

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poster-DAmicoValerio_PisaMeeting2024.pdf

309 Construction and Performance of the Precision Tracking Chambers for the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer Upgrade for High-Luminosity LHC

For the operation at HL-LHC, the MDT chambers of the inner barrel layer (BIS) of the ATLAS muon spectrometer will be replaced by small-diameter Muon Drift Tube (sMDT) chambers which will be integrated with triplets of thin-gap RPC chambers in order to improve the acceptance and robustness of the barrel muon trigger system.
The sMDT chambers have half the drift tube diameter of the MDT chambers and about one order of magnitude higher background rate capability. The
construction of the 96 new sMDT chambers was performed between January 2021 and September 2023 at two production sites at a continuous rate of one chamber every two weeks. The sense wire positioning accuracy guaranteed by precision assembly jigs was measured to be around 5 μm over the whole construction period. Stringent performance tests had to be passed during the production which have been successfully repeated after delivery of the chambers to CERN. The chambers have been tested with the new MDT front-end ASICs developed for operation at HL-LHC which improve the spatial resolution of the drift tubes by 10% compared to readout with the legacy electronics.

Speaker: Hubert Kroha (Max-Planck Institute for Physics)

picture-Hubert_Kroha.jpg

poster-Elba2024_Kroha_BIS16_sMDT_final.pdf

310 PICOSEC Micromegas precise-timing gaseous detectors and studies on robust photocathodes

The PICOSEC Micromegas (MM) detector is a precise-timing gaseous detector based on a Cherenkov radiator coupled with a semi-transparent photocathode and a MM amplifying structure, targeting a time resolution of tens of picoseconds for minimum ionising particles. The first single-pad prototypes demonstrated a time resolution below 25 ps and several developments are being pursued to make the concept suitable for physics applications. The objective is to build robust multi-channel detector modules for large-area detection systems requiring good time resolution. Intense R&D activities within PICOSEC have covered all areas from simulations, design, production and assembly to measurements in laboratory conditions as well as with 150 GeV/c muon beams. One of the project’s milestones was scaling up the prototype to a 100-channel detector with an active area of 10x10 cm2. The optimised device showed a time resolution below 18 ps for individual pads, proving that the excellent timing performance of the single-channel proof of concept can be transferred to the 100-channel prototype. Regarding robustness, a 10x10 cm2 area resistive PICOSEC MM of 20 MΩ/□ was produced and a time resolution of 20 ps for individual pads was obtained. Furthermore, detailed measurements of carbon-based photocathode samples, including Diamond Like Carbon (DLC) and Boron Carbide (B4C) are ongoing to find an alternative to Cesium Iodide. Preliminary results from single- and multi-channel detectors equipped with DLC and B4C photocathodes showed a time resolution below 35 ps. Finally, complete read-out chain measurements using RF pulse preamplifiers and a SAMPIC digitiser were successfully performed, confirming the system to be appropriate for studying multi-channel detector response. Efforts dedicated to scale up the detector, improve the robustness and integrate scalable electronics make the PICOSEC MM concept more suitable for large experiments requiring enhanced endurance while maintaining good timing properties.

Speaker: Marta Lisowska (CERN)

photo-MartaLisowska.jpg

poster-PICOSEC-MartaLisowska.pdf

311 Corryvreckan Framework Integration for μ-RWELL Tracking Detectors

This study is dedicated to enhancing the Corryvreckan framework [1], a versatile platform designed for the reconstruction and analysis of test beam data, by integrating an interface for the Scalable Readout System (SRS)+APV25 Front End Electronics (FEE) [2,3]. The SRS+APV25 represents the initial stages of a very popular readout chain for acquiring and processing Micro Pattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGD) signals.
Initially, Corryvreckan was optimized by its developers for use with pixelated silicon-based detectors. This project, for the first time, aims to exploit all the potentialities of the Corryvreckan framework for the analysis of gaseous detectors data, specifically the µ-RWELL tracking detectors with strip readout. Detectors with different readout layouts were rigorously tested, thanks to the Test Beam carried out in June 2023 by the collaboration of RD_FCC, LHCb and CLAS12 groups. The analysis performed with Corryvreckan was benchmarked against the analysis conducted using the GRAAL framework [4], which is the standard tool currently employed, proving that Corryvreckan’s modular approach not only simplifies the process of adapting it to various types of detectors but also enhances the efficiency of data analysis by providing a streamlined, user-friendly interface.

[1] D. Dannheim et al., “Corryvreckan: a modular 4D track reconstruction and analysis software for test beam data”, J. Instr. 16 (2021) P03008, doi:10.1088/1748-0221/16/03/P03008, arXiv:2011.12730

[2] SRS: JINST 8 (2013) C03015

[3] APV25: Nucl.Instrum.Meth.A 466 (2001) 359-365

[4] R. Farinelli et al., GRAAL: Gem Reconstruction And Analysis Library, DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/1525/1/012116, J.Phys.Conf.Ser. 1525 (2020) 1, 012116

Speaker: Elena Sidoretti (INFN - Roma 2)

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poster-Sidoretti.pdf

312 Resistive High Granularity Micromegas for Future Detectors. Status and Perspectives

The presented project aims to establish the use of single amplification stage resistive MPGD based on Micromegas technology, for a stable and efficient operation up to 10 MHz/cm2 particle rate. Key challenges include the miniaturization of readout elements (small pads at mm2 scale), the optimization of the spark protection system, and ensuring reliability and robustness during operation.

Various resistive patterns were implemented using different techniques, categorized into two families: one employing a pad-patterned configuration and the other utilizing a structure based on a double layer of DLC foils (Diamond Like Carbon structure).
The two categories implement different charge evacuation methods: embedded resistors using independent pads the first, and double DLC uniform resistive foils the latter, relying on a network of dot-connections to ground in the active area.

The presentation will include a comparative analysis of results obtained with different resistive layouts and configurations, emphasizing the response under high irradiation and high-rate exposure, as well as tracking performance at test-beams. The discussion will spotlight the advantages and performance of the solution featuring the double DLC layer.

Comprehensive results from a recently tested medium-sized detector (400 cm2) will be reported, accompanied by preliminary measurements conducted on the first built large area module (50x50 cm2), designed as a full size module for tiling in future experiments.

This overview encapsulates the current status, notable achievements, and readiness for the upcoming phase of R&D, positioning the project towards final development for large area high-rate detectors.

Speaker: Mauro Iodice (INFN - Roma 3)

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Poster_Iodice_PM2024_V6.pdf

313 IXPE Gas Pixel Detector characterization with the X-ray Calibration Facility

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) represents the current state-of-the-art of astrophysical X-ray polarimetry. This mission is a collaboration between NASA and ASI and it has been launched on 9 December 2021: it can measure the linear polarization of different astrophysical sources over the photon energy range 2-8 keV.

The core of IXPE Detector Unit and future X-ray polarimetry missions is the Gas Pixel Detector (GPD). It can be calibrated and characterized using the X-ray Calibration Facility (XCF), available at the Physics Department at the University of Turin. The XCF is a table-top, open-design irradiation setup for research: it offers beams of photons at different energies and with different spatial and polarization configurations. The radiation source can be chosen between a single-anode and a multi-anode X-ray tube and, in addition, the XCF can provide two beam-lines: one of them is linearly polarized through Bragg diffraction on a number of crystals that are selected to fulfil the Bragg condition at the primary beam energy. Both beams can be monitored and characterized using a Silicon Drift Detector and a CMOS ASI ZWO Camera, adapted to acquire X-ray spectra and display the beams.

Thanks to a handling system, the GPD can measure both the unpolarized and polarized beam: a comparison between these two signals provides a way to characterize the GPD itself. In addition, to study long-term variations of the GPD response, it is possible to use a $^{55}Fe$ radiative source.

Initially conceived as a calibration source to qualify GPDs, the XCF can satisfy evolving requirements to support R&D programs of innovative position-energy and polarization-sensitive X-ray detectors.

Speaker: Stefano Tugliani (Università di Torino / INFN)

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poster-216-Tugliani.pdf

video-Tugliani.mp4

314 Thermal neutron detection based on resistive gaseous devices

The uRANIA project aims to realise a compact device for thermal neutron detection, utilising resistive gaseous devices such as μ-RWELL and surface Resistive Plate Counter (sRPC).

The μ-RWELL is a single amplification stage resistive MPGD. The amplification stage, based on the same foil used for GEMs, is embedded through a resistive layer of Diamond-Like-Carbon (DLC) in the readout board. On the copper-coated side of the foil a well matrix is realized (70 μm diameter, 140 μm pitch). A thin layer of 10B4C (sputtered on different 2D or 3D geometries) enables thermal neutrons conversion into 7Li and α ions, which can be detected. Testing with various layouts has demonstrated that a single detector can achieve up to 7% efficiency for thermal neutrons (25meV). A detailed comparison between experimental data and the simulation of the detector behaviour has been performed.

Concurrently, the development of thermal neutron RPCs, based on an innovative concept, is underway. The sRPC is an RPC based on surface resistive electrodes realized by exploiting DLC sputtering technology on thin polyimide foils, the same used for µ-RWELLs. The DLC foil is glued to a 2mm thick float-glass. The 2 mm gas gap between the electrodes is ensured by Delrin® spacers, inserted without gluing at the edges of the glass. This electrode assembly is then encased within a fiberglass box, defining the gas volume.

Replacing one or both DLC electrodes of the sRPC with 10B4C coated plates, the device becomes sensitive to thermal neutrons. Three different combinations of 10B4C electrodes have been tested: coating cathode, anode or both. With these symmetric layout an efficiency of 6% has been achieved. The robustness, ease of construction, and scalability of the sRPC technology pave the way for a cost-effective solution for large area detector units as required for example by applications in homeland security.

Speaker: Matteo Giovannetti (INFN - LNF)

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poster-giovannetti-uRANIA.pdf

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315 Recuperation systems for fluorinated gases at the CERN LHC Experiments

Particle detectors at the LHC experiments are very often characterized by large detector volumes and by the need of using very specific gases, some of which are greenhouse gases (GHGs). Given their high Global Warming Potential (GWP) and the increasingly stringent European regulations regarding the use and trade of these gases, CERN is today strongly committed to reduce GHGs emissions from particle detector operation. Different approaches have been adopted for reducing the GHG emissions. To achieve this objective, the CERN Gas Team has developed gas recuperation plants: i.e. systems designed to extract GHGs from the exhaust of gas recirculation systems allowing further re-use and, therefore, reducing drastically GHGs emissions without changing detectors operation conditions. They are industrial-scale systems, each of which relies on different principles for gas separation and purification. Considering the unique gas mixtures used in particle detectors, these recuperation systems have been specifically developed as no industrial apparatus currently exists to address these requirements. Recent developments are concerning plants for recuperation of CF4, C2H2F4 (also called R134a), SF6 and C4F10, which are used respectively for Cathode Strip Chambers, (CSCs) Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) and Ring-Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detectors. The separation of fluorinated gases is carried out mainly through membranes, absorbers, or distillation. In the case of CF4, it is separated from a CF4/Ar/CO2 mixture (in the proportions of 10/40/50). The R134a is recuperated from a gas mixture of C2H2F4/iC4H10/SF6 (in the proportions of 95.2/4.5/0.3) where freon forms an azeotropic mixture with the iC4H10. The C4F10 is separated from CO2, O2 and N2. It is worth to notice that these gas mixtures undergo high electric field and high radiation background characteristic of the LHC experiments and therefore dedicated studies on the breakdown products have also been performed.

Speaker: Beatrice Mandelli (CERN)

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Poster_Mandelli.pdf

316 First operation of an ACHINOS-equipped spherical proportional counter with individual anode read-out

The spherical proportional counter is a versatile gaseous detector with applications from direct dark matter searches to neutron spectroscopy. The multi-anode sensor ACHINOS has been transformative to the capabilities of the spherical proportional counter by enabling higher pressure operation and larger detectors. Another advantage is the additional event localisation capability brought by having several — generally eleven — anodes. To date, the anodes are typically read in one or two channels due to existing read-out hardware constraints. We present the first measurements with an ACHINOS where each anode is individually read out. Previous implementations of ACHINOS will be discussed and how this lead to the development of an individual-anode read-out. Experimental results with an individually read out ACHINOS, demonstrating significant energy resolution improvement will also be presented. Extensive simulation studies were preformed to understand the origin of anode-by-anode response differences, including from the design of ACHINOS and construction imperfections, and will be presented, along with mitigation and calibration methods to cover come them. This development is transformative for many applications of the spherical proportional counter, from direct dark matter searches to fast neutron spectroscopy, and the advantages brought will be discussed.

Speaker: Patrick Knights (University of Birmingham)

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poster-knights-spc.pdf

317 A novel wiring technique to build ultra-low mass high-wire density drift chambers

Ultra-low mass drift chambers, with Helium-based gas mixture and high wire density are ideal trackers for high-precision experiments in the intensity frontiers of particle physics. In the search for Lepton Flavor Violation the MEG~II experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institut represents the state of the art in the search for the $\mu^+~\rightarrow~e^+~\gamma$ decay. The Cylindrical Drift CHamber (CDCH) is a key detector for MEG~II with single-hit, angular and momentum resolutions $< 120$~$\mu$m, 6.5~mrad and 100~keV/c respectively, measured on data. Wire breaking problems arose during the assembly and commissioning phases due to galvanic corrosion of the 40-50~$\mu$m Silver-plated Aluminum cathode wires in presence of ambient humidity. A R$\&$D work started to find an alternative wire solution and explore the possibility to build a new chamber. The CDCH2 project was approved and is currently in the construction phase at INFN Pisa. Given the high wire density (12~wires/cm$^2$), a modular assembly is used. Wires are not strung directly on the through-hole endplates but fixed at both ends on the pads of two PCBs, which are then radially stacked on the endplates. Al (5056 alloy) 50~$\mu$m cathode wires without Ag coating were chosen, since their immunity to corrosion. A hybrid wire fixing technology was developed since the known difficulties to solder very thin Al wires, due to the natural oxide layer. Automatic laser micro-soldering and micro-gluing stations are integrated in the wiring machine, which ensures a 50~$\mu$m and $\pm 0.5$~g wire placement and mechanical tension accuracy. A special soldering tin with acid flux core allows the Al wire soldering and electric contact. A drop of epoxy glue is then used to mechanically secure the Al wire. This novel technique is now well established, allowing to reach the 70\% of the CDCH2 assembly. The completion goal is set in June 2024.

Speaker: Marco Chiappini (INFN - Pisa)

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poster_MEG_CDCH_wiring_chiappini.pdf

318 Unveiling the Operational Principles of MICROMEGAS Gas Detectors at Low Pressure: A Comprehensive Exploration

In the last years, our research group at the INFN Pisa Laboratory has been deeply involved in the development of a gas detector optimized for operation in a low-pressure regime down to 100 mbar and below. Our objective is the precise detection of atoms within the energy range of 1-100 keV, providing energy measurement and particle tracking with a compact instrument. The MICROMEGAS technology has proven to be inherently well-suited for low-pressure operations, offering tunable avalanche volume to achieve the desired signal amplification.
At the very beginning and by using standard simulation tools, the elaborated model of our detector predicted a very low gain for our selected pressure interval. Through an extensive test campaign using X-ray sources and refined software simulations based on experimental results, we have now acquired a thorough understanding of achievable detector performance as a function of gas pressure.
In this report will provide a detailed summary of a measurements campaign investigating the dependence of the detector gain and energy resolution on the amplification field, gas pressure and drift field. Extensive investigations on gas contaminants and temperature dependency have been also carried on, with the possibility to mitigate their effects on the detector response: each experimental measurement has been deeply analyzed minimizing dependencies on model and simulated data. Thanks to this precise activity aimed at comparing predicted values and experimental results, it was necessary to modify the simulated avalanche model introducing new phenomena never considered in the field of detector development working in low-pressure regime.

Speaker: Dr Federico Pilo (INFN - Pisa)

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poster-MMAtLowPressureDeepUnderstanding_20240527_v0.pdf

319 Characterizing MICROMEGAS Atom Detection Capabilities at the INFN Pisa Ion Beam Facility

An Ion Beam Facility (IBF) has been set-up at the INFN laboratory in Pisa with specific intent of having a test bench for studying gas detectors that detect low-energy ionizing radiation under low-pressure conditions (100 mbar and below). Developed by the Pisa research group engaged in the SWEATERS and UTMOST projects, the IBF is currently being used to highlight the sensitivity of a MICROMEGAS detector for the observation and study of light ions (H, He, O) with energy below 5 keV.

The facility employs a commercial sputtering ion source in an unconventional manner, prioritizing low current, high stability, and precise beam focusing to cover the distance to the detector under test. Along the beam line, the differential pressure technique and precise gas tightness of the detector enable a detailed study of atom-gas molecule interactions. The facility includes a monitoring system for residual gas contaminants, which might otherwise contribute to diffuse background and secondary beams formations overlapping the main monoenergetic beam signal. A sophisticated positioning system, offering six degrees of freedom, ensures precise positioning of the detector on the beamline. Continuous gas renewal in the detector's sensitive volume is achieved through a gas distribution system. Monitoring of thermodynamic parameters affecting the detector response and a sensor-based cooling system for temperature control improve the experimental accuracy.

This IBF represents an active playground, at INFN Pisa, for the future developments of gas detectors to be operated in low-pressure regime and for low energy ionization radiation. In addition, it is of great importance and interest for specific applications where each detector component and innovative experimental methodologies must be carefully tested. Thanks to this facility, a precise characterization of a MICROMEGAS detector was possible in recent years. Today it represents a cornerstone of a robust and well-established research and development program for future detector technologies.

Speaker: Andrea Foresi (Università di Pisa / INFN)

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poster_CharacterizingMMAtomDetectionCapabilitiesAtTheINFNIBF.pdf

320 Long term performance testing of gas-tight RPC for muography application

Muography is a technique employed for object scanning using muons by analyzing their interaction with the scanned object. This interaction involves various mechanisms, with absorption and multiple Coulomb interactions being the most dominant. Muography offers non-destructive, radiation-free sub-surface imaging due to high penetration power of readily available cosmic muons.
The muography techniques have gained popularity in recent times due to advancements in position sensitive detectors and their Data AcQuisition (DAQ) systems. Our focus is to develop a detector system using glass-based gas-tight portable RPC detectors. RPC’s are well studied and are commonly used detectors however, for our application a gas-tight version is under development. The primary emphasis of our studies lies in the long-term stability of these detectors, covering aspects such as efficiency, time response, and gas stability. Additionally, an absorption muography study has been conducted with various objects to assess the feasibility and performance of the current version of the detector.
The developed RPC and DAQ systems are portable and currently undergoing testing with the gas mixture utilized in the CMS experiment at CERN. The detector boasts an active area measuring 16 by 16 cm, featuring a readout strip with a pitch of 1.0 cm and a strip width of 0.9 cm. The glass electrodes, coated with resistive graphite paint, are positioned within an aluminum chamber, maintaining a 1 mm gap between them. At present an efficiency of above 90 percent with respect to plastic scintillators has been achieved through the implementation of various filters at both the hardware and software levels. These filters are designed to maximize the signal to noise ratio.

Speaker: Dr Vishal Kumar (UCLouvain)

PM2024_VKumar.pdf

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321 MPGD Trackers in the ePIC Detector at the EIC

The future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory will collide polarized electrons with polarized proton/ions. The electron – Proton / Ion Collider (ePIC) Experiment is the EIC general-purpose detector aiming at delivering the full physics program of the EIC. This unique environment imposes stringent requirements on the tracking system needed for the measurement of the scattered electron and charged particles produced in the collisions at the EIC. The ePIC central tracker has at its core silicon-based tracking and vertexing detectors, which are complemented by large Micro-Pattern Gaseous Detector (MPGD) trackers in the barrel region as well as in both the electron and hadron end cap regions. The ePIC MPGD trackers provide fast timing and additional hit points for pattern recognition during track finding. Two MPGD technologies have been selected for the ePIC gaseous trackers: cylindrical Micromegas for the barrel inner tracker and planar thin-gap GEM-µRWELL hybrid detector for the barrel outer tracker and the end cap disks. In this talk we will present the latest performance from the recent test beam campaigns to address the challenges from the stringent the requirement from physics and simulation studies. We will present the ongoing R&D efforts with the ePIC MPGD community to address these requirements and finally, we will discuss the plans and timeline for the production and testing and commissioning of the MPGD trackers before the installation in the ePIC detector.

Speaker: Kondo Gnanvo (Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility)

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Poster_PM2024_KGnanvo.pdf

322 The straw tube tracker for the SAND near detector of DUNE experiment

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an international, world-class experiment aimed at precisely measuring the neutrino oscillation parameters. The experiment consists of a far detector at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota and a Near Detector (ND) complex, close to the neutrino source at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL).

The System for on Axis Neutrino Detection (SAND) exploits a 0.6 T superconductive magnet, an electromagnetic calorimeter made of lead scintillating fibers, a 1-ton liquid argon detector, and a straw tube tracker (STT) integrating a series of thin replaceable CH2 and C targets located between tracking modules made of straw tubes. The STT allows the reconstruction of neutrino interactions in the targets providing both an accurate tracking for charged particles and particle identification. The STT tracking modules are designed to minimize their thickness and mass and require fully integrated readout electronics for both time and charge measurements of individual straws. Strict low-power consumption requirements combined with the relatively modest rates led us to the development of a microcontroller-based readout electronics concept for STT. The design is based on compact modular boards reading up to 64 channels and directly integrated within the C-fiber frame of the STT modules.

A 80 cm x 120 cm prototype of a STT tracking module has been built at CERN to validate the mechanical design and the assembly procedure. The first version of the integrated readout boards was installed within the C-fiber frame of such a prototype. The mechanics, the performance of the microcontroller-based readout, and the test beam results will be presented together.

Speaker: Fabrizio Raffaelli (INFN - Pisa)

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poster-STT-SAND-DUNE.pdf

323 Production and test of BI-RPC detectors for ATLAS Phase II upgrade

The current RPC system is undergoing a major upgrade, consisting in the installation of approximately 1000 RPC detector units of new generation in the innermost barrel layer of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer. The goal of the project is to increase the detector coverage, currently limited to approximately 80%, and improve the trigger robustness and efficiency. The production of the gas volumes takes place in a factory in Italy, in MPI and USTC, while the readout panels in Cosenza and USTC. The Italian collaboration is taking care of the construction and test of the chambers located in the large sectors of the ATLAS barrel (BIL). Here we present the state of the art of the production, certification and logistics related to all the components produced at the Italian sites, as well as the assembly line and characterization of the BIL chambers at CERN. In particular, we describe the protocols defined and the instrumentation created for the certification of gas volumes at the Italian production factory, for the construction and certification of the read-out panels in Cosenza and for the assembly and certification with cosmic rays of the detectors at CERN. The certification results of the components produced are analyzed and discussed.

Speaker: Mattia Francesco Perrone (INFN - LNF)

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rev3_PRODUCTION AND TEST OF BI-RPC (PISA 2024).pdf

324 The u-RWELL technology for tracking apparatus in High Energy Physics

The micro-RWELL is a Micro Pattern Gas Detector (MPGD) that inherits some of the best characteristics of existing MPGDs, like GEMs and MicroMegas, while simplifying the detector construction. Moreover, it substantially enhances spark protection by integrating a resistive layer into the anode board.
A significant progress towards large-scale applications has been achieved through the consolidation and industrial cost-effective manufacturing of this technology.
The μ-RWELL, showing excellent spatial performance, good time resolution and stability under irradiation, is proposed for several tracking apparatus for future experiments at future accelerators such as FCC (CERN), CEPC (China) and EIC (Brookhaven National Laboratory).
The reduced impact in terms of material budget makes this technology suitable for the development of tracking devices in the muon spectrometer upgrade of CLAS12 experiment (Jefferson Lab) and as trackers for X17 proposal experiment at the n_TOF facility (CERN). In addition, the flexibility of the µ-RWELL base material makes this device suitable for the development of very light, fully cylindrical fine tracking inner trackers at future high luminosity tau-charm factories, SCTF (China).
This presentation provides an overview of the µ-RWELL technology for tracking applications in High Energy Physics (HEP). On-going R&D will be presented focusing the detector performance according to the different technological challenges required by the aforementioned experiments.

Speaker: Gianfranco Morello (INFN - LNF)

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Poster-morello_ELBA2024.pdf

325 Closing and farewell

Speaker: Francesco Forti (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

2024 closing.pdf