Radiation hardness studies of n+-in-n planar pixel sensors for the ATLAS upgrades

The ATLAS experiment at the LHC is planning upgrades of its pixel detector to cope with the luminosity increase foreseen in the coming years within the transition from LHC to Super-LHC (SLHC/HL-LHC). Associated with the increase in instantaneous luminosity is a rise of the target integrated luminosity from 730 to about 3000 fb−1 which directly translates into significantly higher radiation damage.These upgrades consist of the installation of a 4th pixel layer, the insertable b-layer IBL, with a mean sensor radius of only 32 mm from the beam axis, before 2016/17. In addition, the complete pixel detector will be exchanged before 2020/21. Being very close to the beam, the radiation damage of the IBL sensors might be as high as 5×1015neqcm−2 at their end-of-life. The total fluence of the innermost pixel layer after the SLHC upgrade might even reach 2×1016neqcm−2.To investigate the radiation hardness and suitability of the current ATLAS pixel sensors for these fluences, n+-in-n silicon pixel sensors from the ATLAS Pixel production have been irradiated by reactor neutrons to the IBL design fluence and been tested with pions at the SPS and with electrons from a 90Sr source in the laboratory. The collected charge after IBL fluences was found to exceed 10 000 electrons per MIP at 1 kV of bias voltage which is in agreement with data collected with strip sensors. After SLHC fluences, still reliable operation of the devices could be observed with a collected charge of more than 5000 electrons per MIP.