Detector hardware

Forward Tracker (FT) developed for the PANDA - HADES experiments, will be used for tracking and identification of charged particles in the forward regions by measuring the drift-time and the energy loss with the Time Over Threshold (TOT) method of the track. In the thesis, the methods required to achieve the energy and position resolution for the tracker are developed and evaluated in two stages. In the first stage, the detector and readout calibration methods are developed to endow uniform gain characteristics from a large number of detector channels. These methods are also used for the qualification of PASTTRECv3 ASIC (PANDA Straw Tube Tracker REadout Chip, Application Specific Integrated Circuit) developed for the FT. The obtained calibration parameters are validated by tracking the performance of prototypes of straw tubes under realistic beam conditions inside the HADES
experiment and prototypes of the PANDA detectors. In the second stage, a Data AcQuisition (DAQ) system performing online event selection, filtering and particle track reconstruction on FPGA-based hardware has been developed and evaluated in experiments using proton beams and cosmic rays.
The application of online event processing in FT will accelerate event processing and introduce data reduction, which is one of the components of the DAQ system in the PANDA experiment. The FT detector setup and the DAQ have been integrated for the HADES experiment and the successful operation of the detector in the full system run has confirmed the effectiveness of the developed methods.

The PANDA (antiProton ANnihilation at DArmstadt) experiment aims to investigate
the strong interaction using an antiproton beam and a stationary cluster jet
target, resulting in annihilation reactions. The Micro-Vertex Detector (MVD) is the
innermost detector among PANDA’s sub-detectors and is positioned closest to
the interaction point. It is designed for precise vertex and tracking detection, employing
double-sided silicon strip and silicon pixel detectors. In conjunction with
other sub-detector systems, PANDA is capable of particle tracking, identification,
and calorimetry. In addition to PANDA, further applications of the MVD as well
as the use of silicon strip sensors in different configurations are being discussed.
The double-sided silicon strip detectors allow high-precision spatial resolution,
but require stringent compliance with specifications. Sensor characterization and
detailed quality checks are conducted, including irradiation with protons at the
Marburg Ion Beam Therapy Center (MIT) to assess radiation damage. The signal
behavior of the sensors is investigated during the development of amplification
stages and prepared for a sub-experiment for dosimetry on a femto satellite in
Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
For the sensor readout in the MVD, an ASIC named ToASt (Torino Amplifier for
Silicon Strip Detectors) was developed at INFN Turin and was connected to the
sensors for the first time via wire bonding. The ASIC offers the advantage of
determining both the event time stamp and the energy deposited in the sensor
using the Time-over-Threshold and Time-of-Arrival methods. Combining the
ToASt-Sensor combination with the MDC (Module Data Concentrator) ASIC
developed at KIT forms the first fully functional detector module. A combination
of two of these modules was tested at the proton beam of the COSY facility in Jülich.
Data obtained from beam tests and laboratory tests with sources are analyzed
to demonstrate the functionality of the prototype and perform characterization.
Important data have been collected to enable the development of the second
prototype and to advance the construction and functionality of the MVD.