Detector Development Infrastructure

QMUL has, and is currently, making signicant investments in infrastructure to support the
Particle Physics Research Centre (PPRC) at QMUL. Prior to the last consolidated grant round
an estimated investment of £170K had been made in order to modernise the workshop, equip-
ping it with two modern CNC machines to directly support detector prototyping and future
experiment builds. College is continuing to invest in our activities, and has just completed a
new class 10,000 clean room for silicon detector R&D, and a dedicated laboratory for testing
silicon detector and mechanical support structures. This new lab includes facilities for ATLAS
tracker upgrade stave QA. The total cost of this facility including VAT is £560K. QMUL will
be investing in additional laboratory facilities in the near future to support generic R&D and
neutrino detector development work. Our projects team are currently finalising the tendering
process for that work. Given this significant direct contribution to provide infrastructure for STFC
science, totalling £730K so far, combined with the fact that we are seeking funds for generic
detector development infrastructure, we ask for 100% contributions from STFC for an Optical
coordinate measuring machine for silicon detector QA and development programmes and a
Scalable Readout System (SRS) for testing pixel sensors as a part of our generic R&D programme.
We believe that this infrastructure request represents excellent value for money from the perspective
of STFC as we have already leveraged over five times the requested amount of money for
our group infrastructure. QMUL will cover the cost of software for the CMM and training of staff
to use it, which as can be seen from the quote supplied, amounts to £11,358+VAT.

The equipment requested will strengthen collaborative ties between QMUL, STFC laboratories and CERN,
as well as allowing the UK community to build on its silicon expertise by taking into account previously
ignored effects in silicon detector construction. If fully successful that knowledge could make the
difference between UK technology, with a proven track record of impact potential, being selected for
new international projects over competitors. This is especially true in the realm of future linear collider
detectors where resolutions of less than 3um are desired targets that have yet to be achieved in
demonstrator chips. An understanding of these effects could also be relevant for other industrial
or scientific imaging applications involving large scale image sensors. Hence this could lead to impact
from ATLAS data analysis to underpinning IP for STFC developed technology, and may even have benefits
further afield in terms of image processing in CMOS applications.

This grant will enable us to develop better detectors for particle physics and to exploit data derived image correction algorithms for non-uniform sensors in a wider context. The requested equipment will allow us to make the transition from academic (reverse engineering of the effect) to practical (direct measurement and correction of the effect). This builds on current work we are doing for the LHC with model-based corrections and would allow a more versatile approach to be taken in a number of commercial and other scientific applications. Using corrections based on actual sensor shape maps, rather than model-derived maps, is a logical follow on from our ATLAS tracking/alignment work. Here impact is in terms of CMOS imaging devices, which could benefit UK industry (for example EEV is moving from specialised CCD into a mix of CCD and CMOS manufacture), and as CMOS technology is replacing CCD technology world wide the requested infrastructure could enable the group to develop techniques to improve image processing for scientific and commercial applications. Outside the world of imaging, one can also explore the effectiveness of such a correction algorithm on hadron therapy dosimetry and monitoring systems. The infrastructure funded through this grant will open new funding possibilities via QMUL innovations, interdisciplinary and venture capital programmes in the longer term. In particular there is significant funding available for life sciences based on new initiatives in College. This will also enable follow on funding from research councils other than STFC. This work affects several areas of STFC science - hence goes beyond particle physics and could conceivably allow us to work with UK SMEs and large-scale companies to improve image processing. We have a number of direct contacts in this area, such as EEV and Micron Semiconductors Ltd., and indirectly have access to RAL-TD partners who already use sensors developed with funding from STFC (for example ultra-fast imaging for tracking systems), that work in areas that could benefit from the algorithms we could develop from our HEP driven goals. We also have direct links to hadron therapy facilities at PSI, in Italy, and indirect links to those under development and in existence in the UK. Given our past collaboration with STFC's CMOS design team at the Rutherford Campus as well as our network of direct and secondary contacts, combined with our service obligations on the LHC we believe these to be realistic aspirations that can lead to multiple opportunities for economic impact.