Short Strips for the sLHC: A P-Type Silicon Microstrip Detector in 3-D Technology

The luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the sLHC, will constitute an extremely challenging radiation environment for tracking detectors. With respect to the LHC, large improvements in radiation hardness are required. In this paper, we investigated the expected radiation hardness of the 3-D-design, where rows of 3-D-columns are etched in substrate material and joined together to form strips. To investigate the feasibility of 3-D silicon strip detectors (SSD) for the sLHC, we have built prototype modules using 3-D single type column (3-D-STC) strip detectors with short strips and front-end electronics from the present ATLAS SemiConductor Tracker (SCT). The modules were tested with a beta source setup before and after irradiation to sLHC fluences with 26 MeV protons. We report on the performance of these 3-D-modules, compare it to the results prior to irradiation, and draw conclusions about options for using 3-D SSD detectors for tracking at the sLHC.