Speaker
Description
High-rate single-photon detection with excellent spatial and temporal precision is a critical requirement for next-generation imaging and particle physics experiments. To meet this demand, a novel detector has been developed based on a vacuum tube architecture that integrates a photocathode, a microchannel plate (MCP), and a Timepix4 CMOS ASIC as the readout anode. The system supports detection rates up to $10^9$ photons per second over a 7~cm$^2$ active area, achieving spatial resolutions of $5–10$ $\mu$m and timing resolutions better than 100 ps. The Timepix4 ASIC, comprising approximately 230 thousand pixels with integrated analog and digital front-end electronics, can operate in data-driven or frame-based acquisition mode and sustains data transmission rates up to $160$ Gb/s. Control and readout are provided by FPGA-based external electronics.
Validation with a prototype coupled to a $100$ $\mu$m thick n-on-p silicon sensor and illuminated by a pulsed infrared picosecond laser demonstrated a timing resolution of about 110~ps per pixel hit, improving to below 50~ps when exploiting cluster information and accounting for other contributions.
Six prototype detectors produced by Hamamatsu Photonics, with varying MCP stack configurations and end-spoiling depths, have been characterized in terms of gain, dark count rate, spatial and timing resolutions, both under laboratory conditions and at CERN's SPS test beam facility. These preliminary results will be discussed, along with plans for the future.
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