Slim edge studies, design and quality control of planar ATLAS IBL pixel sensors

One of the four large experiments at the LHC at CERN is the ATLAS detector, a multi purpose detector. Its pixel detector, composed of three layers, is the innermost part of the tracker. As it is closest to the interaction point, it represents a basic part of the track reconstruction. Besides the requested high resolution one main requirement is the radiation hardness. In the coming years the radiation damage will cause deteriorations of the detector performance. With the planned increase of the luminosity, especially after the upgrade to the High Luminosity LHC, this radiation damage will be even intensified. This circumstance necessitates a new pixel detector featuring improved radiation hard sensors and read-out chips. The present shutdown of the LHC is already utilized to insert an additional b-layer (IBL) into the existing ATLAS pixel detector. The current n-in-n pixel sensor design had to be adapted to the new read-out chip and the module specifications. The new stave geometry requests a reduction of the inactive sensor edge. In a prototype wafer production all modifications have been implemented. The sensor quality control was supervised which led to the decision of the final sensor thickness. In order to evaluate the performance of the sensor chip assemblies with an innovative slim edge design, they have been operated in test beam setups before and after irradiation. Furthermore, the quality control of the planar IBL sensor wafer production was supervised from the stage of wafer delivery to that before the flip chip process to ensure a sufficient amount of functional sensors for the module production.