“New directions in science are launched by new tools much more often than by new concepts” (Freeman Dyson)

The department "Detector Development" conducts strategic research and development on particle detectors for future experiments in high energy physics and for applications in medical imaging. For this purpose we are involved in the CERN collaboration RD50 and the EU network AIDAinnova.

The main research focus is on semiconductor-based track and vertex detectors, which are currently used in the tracker of the CMS experiment at CERN and the SVD of the Belle-II experiment at KEK.

In accordance with the ECFA Detector Roadmap, we are working on monolithic pixel detectors on CMOS electronics (so-called DMAPS), ultra-fast silicon detectors on LGAD technology, and research on silicon carbide (a so-called wide-bandgap material) for use as particle detectors. For this purpose, simulations, measurements on prototypes in our own clean rooms and experiments at beam test facilities (CERN, DESY, MedAustron and others) are performed.

Apart from high-energy physics, we are working on medical applications of HEP detectors, particularly in cancer therapy with ions. In this context, the group is developing a beam position and intensity monitor for the MedAustron ion therapy center and is researching on medical imaging with ions ("proton CT").

Other members

Clean rooms


The Know-How of the department covers the design, the electrical and microscopic characterization of silicon sensors, the construction and wire bonding of detector modules, and the test of such detector modules using in-house lab tests. For this purpose, we operate two clean rooms (class ISO 6 to 7) equipped with several high-tech setups and equipment.

Industrialization


Since the active areas (and thus the number of needed sensors) of the current and future silicon tracking devices have become increasingly larger, the production process of the detectors must be commercialized. We have been working for several years on this topic and were collaborating with the semiconductor foundry Infineon for this purpose.

The following video (in German) presents this activity.


Staff Members