Examining Long Ladder Limits for ILC Silicon Strip Detectors
Physical and Biological Sciences
Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics
Silicon strip sensors are included in all proposed designs of detectors for the International Linear Collider, a proposed new particle collider that would be built later this decade. The longest silicon strip sensor ladder length that meets noise requirements was examined. Measurements made in the SCIPP lab of noise vs. ladder length for the readout of a silicon sensor were used in a detailed detector simulation to generate realistic signals. Those signals were evaluated to discover if an acceptable threshold could be applied that was lower than 99.9% of these signals, and higher than 99.9% of noise values. The maximum ladder length satisfying these requirements was found to be about 74cm, establishing a value for a critical parameter that will be of much use to the physics community as it moves forward with design of a detector for the International Linear Collider. At the maximal length the estimated resolution was 6.7µm. The simulation showed that a significant improvement in resolution can be gained from a reduction in noise. Several ideas for reducing noise are discussed.
