ARCADIA FD-MAPS: Simulation, characterization and perspectives for high resolution timing applications

Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) are a promising technology that provides large sensitive areas at potentially low power consumption and low material budget. The ARCADIA project is developing Fully Depleted MAPS (FD-MAPS) with an innovative sensor design, that uses a backside bias to improve charge collection efficiency and timing over a wide range of operational and environmental conditions. The ARCADIA collaboration has produced a large set of prototypes in the first two engineering runs, with the main design consisting of a 512 × 512 pixel matrix with 25 μm pixel pitch and other smaller active sensor arrays. Test structures of pixel matrices with pixel pitches ranging from 10 to 50 μm and total thicknesses of 50 to 200 μm have also been included, to ease the characterization of the sensors independently from integrated electronics. We give an overview of the status of the project and then focus on the characterization of the passive pixel matrices which include Capacitance–Voltage (CV) and Current–Voltage (IV), as well as Transient Current Technique (TCT) measurements with a red and an infrared laser. We could confirm a single pixel capacitance below 5 fF for pixels with 25 μm pitch, and a 90% charge collection of MIP-like charge depositions within 12 ns in 100 μm active thickness. These results are complemented and supported by Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) simulations.