The SMART detectors: development of radiation hard silicon devices for SLHC

The research activity of the SMART project, a collaboration of Italian research institutes funded by the I.N.F.N., has been focused on the development of radiation hard silicon position sensitive detectors for the CERN Large Hadron Collider luminosity upgrade. Electrical characterization of pad and micro-strip devices as well as Transient Current Technique studies on the bulk material has been carried out on n- and p-type 4" silicon wafers, grown with Standard Float Zone (SFZ), high resistivity Magnetic Czochralski (MCz) and epitaxial (EPI) techniques. The produced devices have been irradiated at very high fluences with 24 GeV/c, 26 MeV protons and with reactor neutrons up to ~10¹⁶ n_eq/cm². Their radiation hardness as a function of the irradiation fluence has been established in terms of breakdown voltage, leakage current and Space Charge Sign Inversion.