RD50: P-type Sensor Results

The development of radiation hard sensors in preparation for the tracker and vertex detectors for the present CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) lasted well over a decade. The detector community in high energy physics was challenged to produce devices able to operate efficiently in the harsh radiation environment created by this high luminosity collider (~1034 cm-2 s-1 ). After an intense R&D phase the sensors were finally qualified for doses up to 10 15 neq cm -2 (the pixel sensors for the inner layers). Nonetheless, a luminosity upgrade of about a factor of ten of the present LHC (the Super LHC) will bring the tracker detector technology beyond the limit investigated during the preparation for the current machine. A new R&D phase targeted to the development of detectors able to operate after the extreme radiation fluences anticipated for the inner layers at the upgraded machine was therefore necessary. The CERN-RD50 collaboration was started in 2002 to fulfil this need. One of the strategies within the collaboration is the development of p-type substrate silicon detectors, instead of the more standard n-type. This paper reports the present status of this development.