BIO

I am a sophomore from Birmingham, Alabama, majoring in Physics and Computational Science. I have always had a passion for learning and teaching. While in high school, I was a member of Vestavia Hills' nationally ranked math team and was a leader of the school’s Science Olympiad team. I am currently the historian for the Society of Physics Students at FSU and am being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi later this spring. While an undergraduate, I hope to utilize my interests in science and mathematics to conduct research in high-energy physics. After completing my undergraduate degree, I have plans to pursue a graduate degree in physics, with the ultimate goal of becoming a physics professor.

Silicon Sensor Quality Control for the HGCAL Upgrade of the CMS Detector

Abstract

The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) is an upgrade to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful particle accelerator in the world. The silicon sensors in the High Granularity Calorimeter of the HL-LHC will be able to detect the energy deposited by charged particles moving through them. The electrical characteristics of the latest prototype sensors need to be tested before production. Around half of the previously passing sensors fail the sensor requirements after these sensors were removed from their dicing frame. All the failing sensors fail on a single requirement: I(800) < 2.5x I(600), meaning that the total current at a reversed bias voltage of 800 volts is less than 2.5 times the total current at 600 volts. Our research team theorized that the failure of these sensors is a result of charge build-up on the sensor during handling and testing. To investigate the cause of the failure our research team investigated the effect of the duration of tests by looping tests, the humidity of the environment during tests, and the presence of a de-ionizing blower during tests on the total current with increasing bias voltage. Our research observed that during looped tests the total current at specific voltages increases over successive tests and continues to fail the I(800) < 2.5x I(600) requirement. Our research also observed that when the humidity of the environment is decreased from 43.8% to around 8% the sensors pass the I(800) < 2.5x I(600) requirement. The deionizing tests negatively affect already poor sensors.

Keywords: Physics, High Energy Physics, Particle Physics, Particle Accelerator, Detectors