3D silicon sensors: Design, large area production and quality assurance for the ATLAS IBL pixel detector upgrade

3D silicon sensors, where electrodes penetrate the silicon substrate fully or partially, have successfully been fabricated in different processing facilities in Europe and USA. The key to 3D fabrication is the use of plasma micro-machining to etch narrow deep vertical openings allowing dopants to be diffused in and form electrodes of pin junctions. Similar openings can be used at the sensor's edge to reduce the perimeter's dead volume to as low as ∼4 μm. Since 2009 four industrial partners of the 3D ATLAS R&D Collaboration started a joint effort aimed at one common design and compatible processing strategy for the production of 3D sensors for the LHC Upgrade and in particular for the ATLAS pixel Insertable B-Layer (IBL). In this project, aimed for installation in 2013, a new layer will be inserted as close as 3.4 cm from the proton beams inside the existing pixel layers of the ATLAS experiment. The detector proximity to the interaction point will therefore require new radiation hard technologies for both sensors and front end electronics. The latter, called FE-I4, is processed at IBM and is the biggest front end of this kind ever designed with a surface of ∼4 cm2. The performance of 3D devices from several wafers was evaluated before and after bump-bonding. Key design aspects, device fabrication plans and quality assurance tests during the 3D sensors prototyping phase are discussed in this paper.