Development of a Tracking Detector for the Mu3e-Experiment based on novel thin High-Voltage Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors

• Applicant: Professor Dr. André Schöning
• Subject Area: Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, Fields ; Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 277075064

Based on thin High-Voltage Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (HV-MAPS) a full scale tracking detector is currently developed for the Mu3e-experiment. The Mu3e-experiment at the Paul-Scherrer Institute (PSI, Switzerland) aims for a search of the lepton flavor violating decay muon -> eee with a branching ratio sensitivity of better than 10^{-16}. To achieve the aimed sensitivity a low mass high resolution pixel detector with thin pixel layers capable to operate at high particles rates is required. To fulfill these requirements a novel detector concept is proposed: ultra-thin HV-MAPS sensors with a thickness of 50 micrometer or less, an ultra-light support structure based on a polyimide foil and detector cooling by using helium gas. Each of the above measures allow to significantly reduce multiple Coulomb scattering compared to standard silicon pixel detectors and to measure low momentum tracks with high resolution at very high rates with more than 1 billion muon decays per second.The goal of the project is to build a small prototype pixel detector based on the new HV-MAPS technology and to qualify it for a series production fo the Mu3e experiment. The proposed tracking detector might also be used for other low energy experiments operating at high particle rates.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Ivan Peric; Dirk Wiedner, Ph.D.