Study of n-on-p sensors breakdown in presence of dielectrics placed on top surface

The ATLAS Upgrade strip module design has readout flex circuits glued directly on top of the sensors’ active area to facilitate the assembly process and minimize the radiation length. The process requires radiation-hard adhesives compatible with the sensor technology. We report on the studies of the breakdown behavior with miniature versions of the prototype sensors, where candidate adhesives were placed in several locations on top of the sensor, including the strip area, guard ring region, and sensor edge. Thermal cycling tends to attenuate the observed cases of breakdown with glue on top of the guard ring. Glue reaching the sensor edge results in low breakdown voltage if it also covers AC- or DC- pads or bias ring openings. Glue placement on top of guard ring region was performed on a large-format sensor, with generally similar results to the miniature sensor tests, except for a large glue deposition, which resulted in a permanent reduction of the breakdown voltage. Post-irradiation measurements were performed for some of the glues deposited on top of the strip area, without any sign of the early breakdown. To help rank the candidate glue, we studied them with differential scanning calorimetry to find the glass transition and degree of curing.