RD50 status: Developing radiation tolerant materials for ultra radiation-hard tracking detectors

The need for ultra-radiation hard semiconductor detectors for the tracker regions in high energy physics experiments at a future high luminosity hadron collider, like the proposed LHC Upgrade, has led to the formation of the CERN RD50 collaboration. The R&D; directions of RD50 follow two paths: understanding radiation effects and finding mitigation through the use of new silicon materials, device engineering and optimised operations, all of which are covered in this paper. An emerging picture of a possible design of a future tracking detector is presented.