Charge-coupled devices for particle detection with high spatial resolution

It is expected that the 1980s will see an intensive study of particles with higher flavours (charm, beauty, etc). There is consequently interest in detectors with good spatial resolution which can distinguish between tracks emerging from the primary vertex and those from secondary vertices due to the decay of these short lived particles. In this paper, we consider the possible application of a thin microelectronic device (the charge-coupled device) for this purpose. We conclude that a modest development of existing CCDs could yield a detector with the following characteristics: a) 2-dimensional spatial measurement in orthogonal directions with precision ~ 3 µm. b) 2-track resolution of ~ 60 µm, with no confusion from tracks which overlap in only one projection. c) time resolution ~ 500 nsec. d) readout time ~ 4 msec. e) radiation hardness ~ 3 × 105 rads, equivalent to 1 year of operation in a typical hadron beam of 106 particles per burst.

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