Development and Evaluation of Test Stations for the Quality Assurance of the Silicon Micro-Strip Detector Modules for the CMS Experiment

CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) is one of four large-scale detectors which will be operated at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). For the search for new physics the reconstruction of the collision products and their properties is essential. In the innermost part of the CMS detector the traces of ionizing particles are measured utilizing a silicon tracker. A large fraction of this detector is equipped with silicon micro-strip modules which provide a precise space resolution in 1-dimension. A module consists of a sensor for detection of particles, the corresponding read-out electronics (hybrid) and a mechanical support structure. Since the 15,148 modules, which will be installed in the silicon micro-strip detector, have a total sensitive surface area of about 198 m2, the inner tracker of CMS is the largest silicon tracking detector, which has ever been built. While the sensors and hybrids are produced in industry, the construction of the modules and the control of the quality is done by the members of the 21 participating institutes. Since the access to the silicon micro-strip tracker will be very limited after the installation in the CMS detector the installed modules must be of high quality. For this reason the modules are thoroughly tested and the test results are uploaded to a central database. By the development of a read-out system and the corresponding software the III. Physikalisches Institut made an important contribution for the electrical and functional quality control of hybrids and modules. The read-out system provides all features for the operation and test of hybrids and modules and stands out due to high reliability and simple handling. Because a very user-friedly and highly automated software it became the official test tool and was integrated in various test stands. The test stands, in which the read-out system is integrated in, are described and the tests which are implemented in the corresponding software. The expected and observed signatures of various faults is elaborated and the quality control after the single production steps. In particular the comparison of the test stands for the qualification of the modules for the end caps of the micro-strip tracker is dealt with. The signatures of typical failures is are uniform in all test stands so that a failure identification routine could be developed which provides detection and distinction by means of unique criteria. Since this routine was applied to all module data the total rate of defect strips can be assessed via the database. The excellent quality of the modules stands out due to a failure rate of less than 1 %.