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The development of semiconductor sensors for new particle tracking detectors places increasing limits on sensor characteristics such as uniformity, size and shape of inefficient areas and size of active compared to inactive sensor areas. Accurately assessing these relatively subtle effects requires either measurements in particle beams or the modification of samples to be used in dedicated laser test setups. Active Region Extent Assessment with X-rays (AREA-X) has been developed as an alternative method for the fast, efficient and precise study of the active area of a semiconductor sensor. It uses a monochromatic, micro-focused X-ray beam with a 10–20 keV energy range as provided by several synchrotron beam lines and uses the photo current induced in the sensor to measure the depth of the responsive sensor volume. It can be used to study local inhomogeneities or inefficiencies, the overall extent of the active sensor volume and its shape and its localised application, which makes the need to gather statistics over a large area unnecessary, allowing for fast readout, which enables studies of the sensor behaviour at a range of external parameters, e.g. temperature or applied bias voltage. This paper presents the measurement concept and technical setup of the measurement, results from initial measurements as well as capabilities and limitations of the method.

The ATLAS collaboration is designing the all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk) that will operate in the HL-LHC replacing the current design. The silicon microstrip sensors for the barrel and the endcap regions in the ITk are fabricated in 6 inch, p-type, float-zone wafers, where large-area strip sensor designs are laid out together with a number of miniature sensors. The radiation tolerance and specific system issues like the need for slim edge of 450 μm have been tested with square shaped sensors intended for the barrel part of the tracker. This work presents the design of the first full size silicon microstrip sensor for the endcap region with a slim edge of 450 μm. The strip endcaps will consist of several wheels with two layers of silicon strip sensors each. The strips have to lie along the azimuthal direction, apart from a small stereo angle rotation (20 mrad on each side, giving 40 mrad total) for measuring the second coordinate of tracks. This stereo angle is built into the strip layout of the sensor and, in order to avoid orphan strips, the sensor edges are inclined by the stereo angle. On top of this, the top and bottom edges are designed as arcs to have equal length strips. Together with the design of this new Stereo Annulus sensor, we will report on the initial measurements of the leakage current as a function of bias voltage, after dicing, and the depletion voltage., The research was supported and financed in part by Canada Foundation for Innovation, the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada under the Research and Technology Instrumentation (RTI) grant SAPEQ-2016-00015; the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Particle Physics National Program, ref. FPA2015-65652-C4-4-R (MINECO/FEDER, UE), and co-financed with FEDER funds; and USA Department of Energy, Grant DE-SC0010107.

Active silicon detectors built on p-type substrate are a promising technological solution for large area silicon trackers such as those at the High Luminosity LHC, but the radiation hardness of this novel approach has to be evaluated. Active n-in-p strip detector prototypes CHESS2 for ATLAS with different substrate resistivities in the range of 20–1000 Ω cm were irradiated with neutrons and protons up to a fluence of 2 × 1 0 15 n eq cm − 2 and 3 . 6 × 1 0 15 n eq cm − 2 . Charge collection in passive test structures on the chip was evaluated using Edge-TCT and minimum ionising electrons from 90Sr. Results were used to assess radiation hardness of the detector in the given fluence range and to determine parameters of initial acceptor removal in different substrates.

The ATLAS experiment will replace the existing Inner Detector by an all-silicon detector named the Inner Tracker (ITk) for the High Luminosity LHC upgrades. In the outer region of the ITk is the strip detector, which consists of a four layer barrel and six discs to each side of the barrel, with silicon-strip modules as basic units. Each module is composed of a sensor and one or more flex circuits that hold the read-out electronics. In the experiment, the modules are mounted on support structures with integrated power and cooling. The modules are designed with geometries that accommodate the central (barrel) and forward (end-cap) regions, with rectangular sensors in the barrels and wedge shaped sensors in the end-caps. The strips lengths and pitch sizes vary according to the occupancy of the region.

Miniature sensors with external dimensions of 10 mm x 10 mm were produced together with full-size sensors for the innermost ring (R0) of the end-cap part in the upgraded ATLAS inner tracker (ITk). AC- and DC-coupled n-type strips with three different pitches (wide, default and narrow) were processed on high-resistivity p-type FZ silicon substrates by Hamamatsu Photonics. The miniature sensors were irradiated with 70-MeV protons at CYRIC, Tohoku University (Japan) and reactor neutrons at the Jožef Stefan Institute (Slovenia) to three different 1-MeV neutron equivalent fluences: 0.5, 1 and 2 x 1015 n eq cm−2. The upper fluence range exceeds the highest anticipated in the innermost part of the ATLAS ITk-Strips over the HL-LHC lifetime ( ∼ 1.25 × 10 15 n eq cm2). The charge collection in the test sensors was evaluated systematically using a 90Sr β -source and an Alibava analogue readout system at reverse-bias voltages up to 1000 V.

The ATLAS upgrade strip module design has readout flex circuits glued directly on top of the sensor’s active area to facilitate the assembly process and minimize the radiation length. The process requires radiation-hard adhesives compatible with the sensor technology. We report on the studies of the breakdown behavior with miniature versions of the prototype sensors, where candidate adhesives were placed in several locations on top of the sensor, including the strip area, guard ring region, and sensor edge. Thermal cycling tends to attenuate the observed cases of breakdown with glue on top of the guard ring. Glue reaching the sensor edge results in low breakdown voltage if it also covers AC- or DC- pads or bias ring openings. Glue placement on top of guard ring region was performed on a large-format sensor, with generally similar results to the miniature sensor tests, except for a large glue deposition, which resulted in a permanent reduction of the breakdown voltage. Post-irradiation measurements were performed for some of the glues deposited on top of the strip area, without any sign of the early breakdown. To help rank the candidate glue, we studied them with differential scanning calorimetry to find the glass transition and degree of curing.

In preparation for the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) runs, the ATLAS inner detector will be completely replaced with an all silicon Inner Tracker (ITk). Hybrid silicon pixel modules will be used for the innermost tracking layers, and silicon micro-strip detectors will be used the outer layers of the tracker. During the production of the detector, the sensors, readout electronics, and other components will undergo a series of quality control (QC) and quality assurance tests. Defects in the fabrication of the sensors will be flagged early in the manufacturer's and ATLAS QC tests. A study of the influence of sensor defects was performed to assess the characteristics of these defects in completed modules, and whether any defect posed a risk to the operation of the front-end readout electronics. All defects were found to have no impact on the performance of the front-end readout electronics for healthy amplifier channels, and defects that short the coupling between the strip implant and the metal readout electrode were only noticeable for strip leakage currents in excess of 250 nA, beyond the end-of-life currents expected for most sensors at the HL-LHC.

Journal of Instrumentation 15(09), P09004 (2020). doi:10.1088/1748-0221/15/09/P09004, For the Phase-II Upgrade of the ATLAS Detector [1], its Inner Detector, consisting of silicon pixel, silicon strip and transition radiation sub-detectors, will be replaced with an all new 100% silicon tracker, composed of a pixel tracker at inner radii and a strip tracker at outer radii. The future ATLAS strip tracker will include 11,000 silicon sensor modules in the central region (barrel) and 7,000 modules in the forward region (end-caps), which are foreseen to be constructed over a period of 3.5 years. The construction of each module consists of a series of assembly and quality control steps, which were engineered to be identical for all production sites. In order to develop the tooling and procedures for assembly and testing of these modules, two series of major prototyping programs were conducted: an early program using readout chips designed using a 250 nm fabrication process (ABCN-250) [2,2] and a subsequent program using a follow-up chip set made using 130 nm processing (ABC130 and HCC130 chips). This second generation of readout chips was used for an extensive prototyping program that produced around 100 barrel-type modules and contributed significantly to the development of the final module layout. This paper gives an overview of the components used in ABC130 barrel modules, their assembly procedure and findings resulting from their tests., Published by Inst. of Physics, London

The planned High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider is being designed to maximise the physics potential of the LHC with 10 years of operation at instantaneous luminosities of 7.5×10 34 cm ¿2 s ¿1 . A consequence of this increased luminosity is the expected radiation damage requiring the tracking detectors to withstand hadron fluence to over 1×10 15 1 MeV neutron equivalent per cm 2 in the ATLAS Strips system. Fast readout electronics, deploying 130 nm CMOS front-end electronics are glued on top of a silicon sensor to make a module. The radiation hard n-in-p micro-strip sensors used have been developed by the ATLAS ITk Strip Sensor collaboration and produced by Hamamatsu Photonics. A series of tests were performed at the DESY-II test beam facility to investigate the detailed performance of a strip module with both 2.5 cm and 5 cm length strips before irradiation. The DURANTA telescope was used to obtain a pointing resolution of 2 ¿m, with an additional pixel layer installed to improve timing resolution to ~25 ns. Results show that prior to irradiation a wide range of thresholds (0.5¿2.0 fC) meet the requirements of a noise occupancy less than 1×10 ¿3 and a hit efficiency greater than 99%. © 2018, The research was supported and financed in part by Canada Foundation for Innovation, the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada under the Research and Technology Instrumentation (RTI) grant SAPEQ-2016-00015; the National Key Program for S&T Research and Development (Grant No. 2016YFA0400101) of China and CAS-Helmholtz Joint Research Group; theMinistry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Repub87lic coming from the projectLM2015058 - Research infrastructure for experiments at CERN; the DST/NRF in South 88 Africa; the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Particle Physics National Program, ref. 89 FPA2015-65652-C4-4-R (MINECO/FEDER, UE), and co-financed with FEDER funds; the UK’s Science and Tech90nology Facilities Council; USA Department of Energy, Grant DE-SC0010107; and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under Grant Agreement no. 654168. The measurements leading to these results have been performed at the Test Beam Facility at DESY Hamburg (Germany), a member of the Helmholtz Association (HGF).

We report on measurements on Ultra-Fast Silicon Detectors (UFSD) which are based on Low-Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGAD). They are n-on-p sensors with internal charge multiplication due to the presence of a thin, low-resistivity diffusion layer below the junction, obtained with a highly doped implant. We have performed several beam tests with LGAD of different gain and report the measured timing resolution, comparing it with laser injection and simulations. For the 300 μm thick LGAD, the timing resolution measured at test beams is 120 ps while it is 57 ps for IR laser, in agreement with simulations using Weightfield2. For the development of thin sensors and their readout electronics, we focused on the understanding of the pulse shapes and point out the pivotal role the sensor capacitance plays.

The radiation hardness and thermal stability of the electrical characteristics of atomic layer deposited Al2O3 layers to be used as passivation films for silicon radiation detectors with slim edges are investigated. To directly measure the interface charge and to evaluate its change with the ionizing dose, metal-oxide-silicon (MOS) capacitors implementing differently processed Al2O3 layers were fabricated on p-type silicon substrates. Qualitatively similar results are obtained for degradation of capacitance-voltage and current-voltage characteristics under gamma and proton irradiations up to equivalent doses of 30 Mrad and 21.07 Mrad, respectively. While similar negative charge densities are initially extracted for all non-irradiated capacitors, superior radiation hardness is obtained for MOS structures with alumina layers grown with H2O instead of O3 as oxidant precursor. Competing effects between radiation-induced positive charge trapping and hydrogen release from the H2O-grown Al2O3 layers may explain their higher radiation resistance. Finally, irradiated and non-irradiated MOS capacitors with differently processed Al2O3 layers have been subjected to thermal treatments in air at temperatures ranging between 100 °C and 200 °C and the thermal stability of their electrical characteristics has been evaluated. Partial recovery of the gamma-induced degradation has been noticed for O3-grown MOS structures. This can be explained by a trapped holes emission process, for which an activation energy of 1.38 ± 0.15 eV has been extracted.

We report on design and performance of new strip sensors for the Heavy Photon Search (HPS) experiment. The sensors feature a slim edge implementation using the Scribe–Cleave–Passivate (SCP) method. The slim edge design has allowed the introduction of a new layer closer to the target, which increased the tracking acceptance and vertex precision, improving physics reach of the experiment. We describe the production, testing, and operational experience with the new sensors.

Journal of Instrumentation 14(03), P03024 - P03024 (2019). doi:10.1088/1748-0221/14/03/P03024, For the Phase-II Upgrade of the ATLAS detector at CERN, the current ATLAS Inner Detector will be replaced with the ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk). The ITk will be an all-silicon detector, consisting of a pixel tracker and a strip tracker. Sensors for the ITk strip tracker are required to have a low leakage current up to bias voltages of −500 V to maintain a low noise and power dissipation. In order to minimise sensor leakage currents, particularly in the high-radiation environment inside the ATLAS detector, sensors are foreseen to be operated at low temperatures and to be manufactured from wafers with a high bulk resistivity of several kΩ·cm. Simulations showed the electric field inside sensors with high bulk resistivity to extend towards the sensor edge, which could lead to increased surface currents for narrow dicing edges. In order to map the electric field inside biased silicon sensors with high bulk resistivity, three diodes from ATLAS silicon strip sensor prototype wafers were studied with a monochromatic, micro-focused X-ray beam at the Diamond Light Source (Didcot, U.K.). For all devices under investigation, the electric field inside the diode was mapped and its dependence on the applied bias voltage was studied., Published by Inst. of Physics, London

A novel microstrip sensor geometry, the stereo annulus, has been developed for use in the end-cap of the ATLAS experiment’s strip tracker upgrade at the HL-LHC. Its first implementation is in the ATLAS12EC sensors, a large-area, radiation-hard, single-sided, AC-coupled, n + -in-p design produced by the ITk Strip Sensor Collaboration and fabricated by Hamamatsu Photonics in early 2017. The results of the initial testing of two ATLAS12EC batches are presented here with a comparison to specification. The potential of the new sensor shape to reinvigorate endcap strip tracking is explained and its effects on sensor performance are isolated by comparing the bulk mechanical and electrical properties of the new sensor to the previous iteration of prototype, the conventional barrel ATLAS12A sensor. The surface properties of the new sensor are evaluated for full-size unirradiated sensors as well as for mini sensors unirradiated and irradiated with protons up to a fluence of 2 . 2 × 1 0 15 neq cm−2. The results show that the new stereo annulus ATLAS12EC sensors exhibit excellent performance and the expected irradiation evolution.

For the High-Luminosity Upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the ATLAS Inner Detector will be replaced with a new, all-silicon tracker (ITk). In order to minimise the amount of material in the ITk, circuit boards with readout electronics will be glued onto the active area of the sensor. Several adhesives, investigated to be used for the construction of detector modules, were found to become fluorescent when exposed to UV light. These adhesives could become a light source in the high-radiation environment of the ATLAS detector. The effect of fluorescent material covering the sensor surface in a high-radiation environment has been studied for a silicon micro-strip sensor using a micro-focused X-ray beam. By positioning the beam parallel to the sensor surface and pointing it both inside the sensor and above the sensor surface inside the deposited glue, the sensor responses from direct hits and fluorescence can be compared with high precision. This contribution presents a setup to study the susceptibility of silicon strip sensors to light contamination from fluorescent materials and shows their impact on the noise and fake signal rate of a sensor operated in a high-radiation environment.

11th International 'Hiroshima' Symposium on the Development and Application of Semiconductor Tracking Detectors (HSTD-11), Naha, Japan, 11 Dec 2017 - 15 Dec 2017; Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research / A 924, 116 - 119 (2018). doi:10.1016/j.nima.2018.06.085, For the Phase-II Upgrade of the ATLAS detector~\cite{ATLAS}, a new, all-silicon tracker will be constructed in order to cope with the increased track density and radiation level of the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider. While silicon strip sensors are designed to minimise the fraction of dead material and maximise the active area of a sensor, concessions must be made to the requirements of operating a sensor in a particle physics detector. Sensor geometry features like the punch-through protection deviate from the standard sensor architecture and thereby affect the charge collection in that area.In order to study the signal collection of n$^{+}$-p$^{-}$-p$^{+}$ silicon strip sensors over their punch-through-protection area, ATLAS silicon strip sensors were scanned with a micro-focused X-ray beam at the Diamond Light Source. Due to the highly focused X-ray beam ($2\times3µ\text{m}^2$) and the short average path length of an electron after interaction with an X-ray photon ($\leq2µ\text{m}$), local signal collection in different sensor areas can be studied with high resolution.This study presents results of high resolution 2D-scans of the punch-through protection region of ATLAS silicon micro-strip sensors, showing how far the strip signal collection area extends toward the bias ring and how the region is affected by radiation damage., Published by North-Holland Publ. Co., Amsterdam

The Heavy Photon Search (HPS), an experiment to search for a hidden sector photon in fixed target electroproduction, is preparing for installation at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) in the Fall of 2014. As the first stage of this project, the HPS Test Run apparatus was constructed and operated in 2012 to demonstrate the experiment's technical feasibility and to confirm that the trigger rates and occupancies are as expected. This paper describes the HPS Test Run apparatus and readout electronics and its performance. In this setting, a heavy photon can be identified as a narrow peak in the e$^+$e$^-$ invariant mass spectrum, above the trident background or as a narrow invariant mass peak with a decay vertex displaced from the production target, so charged particle tracking and vertexing are needed for its detection. In the HPS Test Run, charged particles are measured with a compact forward silicon microstrip tracker inside a dipole magnet. Electromagnetic showers are detected in a PbW0$_{4}$ crystal calorimeter situated behind the magnet, and are used to trigger the experiment and identify electrons and positrons. Both detectors are placed close to the beam line and split top-bottom. This arrangement provides sensitivity to low-mass heavy photons, allows clear passage of the unscattered beam, and avoids the spray of degraded electrons coming from the target. The discrimination between prompt and displaced e$^+$e$^-$ pairs requires the first layer of silicon sensors be placed only 10~cm downstream of the target. The expected signal is small, and the trident background huge, so the experiment requires very large statistics. Accordingly, the HPS Test Run utilizes high-rate readout and data acquisition electronics and a fast trigger to exploit the essentially 100% duty cycle of the CEBAF accelerator at JLab., Comment: Revised version to match published version, 16 pages, 18 figures, published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A, editor: Per Hansson Adrian

Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGAD) are based on a n++-p+-p-p++ structure where an appropriate doping of the multiplication layer (p+) leads to high enough electric fields for impact ionization. Gain factors of few tens in charge significantly improve the resolution of timing measurements, particularly for thin detectors, where the timing performance was shown to be limited by Landau fluctuations. The main obstacle for their operation is the decrease of gain with irradiation, attributed to effective acceptor removal in the gain layer. Sets of thin sensors were produced by two different producers on different substrates, with different gain layer doping profiles and thicknesses (45, 50 and 80 μm). Their performance in terms of gain/collected charge and leakage current was compared before and after irradiation with neutrons and pions up to the equivalent fluences of 5⋅1015 cm−2. Transient Current Technique and charge collection measurements with LHC speed electronics were employed to characterize the detectors. The thin LGAD sensors were shown to perform much better than sensors of standard thickness (∼300 μm) and offer larger charge collection with respect to detectors without gain layer for fluences <2⋅1015 cm−2. Larger initial gain prolongs the beneficial performance of LGADs. Pions were found to be more damaging than neutrons at the same equivalent fluence, while no significant difference was found between different producers. At very high fluences and bias voltages the gain appears due to deep acceptors in the bulk, hence also in thin standard detectors. Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGAD) are based on a n ++ -p + -p-p ++ structure where an appropriate doping of the multiplication layer (p + ) leads to high enough electric fields for impact ionization. Gain factors of few tens in charge significantly improve the resolution of timing measurements, particularly for thin detectors, where the timing performance was shown to be limited by Landau fluctuations. The main obstacle for their operation is the decrease of gain with irradiation, attributed to effective acceptor removal in the gain layer. Sets of thin sensors were produced by two different producers on different substrates, with different gain layer doping profiles and thicknesses (45, 50 and 80 μ m). Their performance in terms of gain/collected charge and leakage current was compared before and after irradiation with neutrons and pions up to the equivalent fluences of 5⋅1015 cm −2 . Transient Current Technique and charge collection measurements with LHC speed electronics were employed to characterize the detectors. The thin LGAD sensors were shown to perform much better than sensors of standard thickness ( ∼ 300 μ m) and offer larger charge collection with respect to detectors without gain layer for fluences

In this paper we report on the timing resolution of the first production of 50 micro-meter thick Ultra-Fast Silicon Detectors (UFSD) as obtained in a beam test with pions of 180 GeV/c momentum. UFSD are based on the Low-Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGAD) design, employing n-on-p silicon sensors with internal charge multiplication due to the presence of a thin, low-resistivity diffusion layer below the junction. The UFSD used in this test belongs to the first production of thin (50 {\mu}m) sensors, with an pad area of 1.4 mm2. The gain was measured to vary between 5 and 70 depending on the bias voltage. The experimental setup included three UFSD and a fast trigger consisting of a quartz bar readout by a SiPM. The timing resolution, determined comparing the time of arrival of the particle in one or more UFSD and the trigger counter, for single UFSD was measured to be 35 ps for a bias voltage of 200 V, and 26 ps for a bias voltage of 240 V, and for the combination of 3 UFSD to be 20 ps for a bias voltage of 200 V, and 15 ps for a bias voltage of 240 V., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, Subm. to NIM A

We have been developing a novel radiation-tolerant n+-in-p silicon microstrip sensor for very high radiation environments, aiming for application in the high luminosity large hadron collider. The sensors are fabricated in 6 in., p-type, float-zone wafers, where large-area strip sensor designs are laid out together with a number of miniature sensors. Radiation tolerance has been studied with ATLAS07 sensors and with independent structures. The ATLAS07 design was developed into new ATLAS12 designs. The ATLAS12A large-area sensor is made towards an axial strip sensor and the ATLAS12M towards a stereo strip sensor. New features to the ATLAS12 sensors are two dicing lines: standard edge space of 910 μm and slim edge space of 450 μm, a gated punch-through protection structure, and connection of orphan strips in a triangular corner of stereo strips. We report the design of the ATLAS12 layouts and initial measurements of the leakage current after dicing and the resistivity of the wafers.

Detectors proposed for the International Linear Collider (ILC) incorporate a tungsten sampling calorimeter (`BeamCal') intended to reconstruct showers of electrons, positrons and photons that emerge from the interaction point of the collider with angles between 5 and 50 milliradians. For the innermost radius of this calorimeter, radiation doses at shower-max are expected to reach 100 MRad per year, primarily due to minimum-ionizing electrons and positrons that arise in the induced electromagnetic showers of e+e- `beamstrahlung' pairs produced in the ILC beam-beam interaction. However, radiation damage to calorimeter sensors may be dominated by hadrons induced by nuclear interactions of shower photons, which are much more likely to contribute to the non-ionizing energy loss that has been observed to damage sensors exposed to hadronic radiation. We report here on the results of SLAC Experiment T-506, for which several different types of silicon diode sensors were exposed to doses of radiation induced by showering electrons of energy 3.5-10.6 GeV. By embedding the sensor under irradiation within a tungsten radiator, the exposure incorporated hadronic species that would potentially contribute to the degradation of a sensor mounted in a precision sampling calorimeter. Depending on sensor technology, efficient charge collection was observed for doses as large as 220 MRad., Comment: Talk presented at the International Workshop on Future Linear Colliders (LCWS13), Tokyo, Japan, 11-15 November 2013

Requirements of HEP experiments lead to highly integrated systems with many electrical, mechanical and thermal constraints. A complex performance optimisation is therefore required. High-speed data transmission lines are designed using copper-polyimide flexible bus tapes rather than cable harnesses to minimise radiation length. Methods to improve the signal integrity of point-to-point links and multi-drop configurations in an ultra-low-mass system are described. FEA calculations are an essential guide to the optimisation of a tape design which supports data rates of 640 Mbps for point-to-point links over a length of up to 1.4 m, as well as 160 Mbps for multi-drop configuration. The designs were validated using laboratory measurements of S-parameters and direct bit error ratio tests.

The design and technology of the silicon strip detector modules for the Semiconductor Tracker (SCT) of the ATLAS experiment have been finalised in the last several years. Integral to this process has been the measurement and verification of the tracking performance of the different module types in test beams at the CERN SPS and the KEK PS. Tests have been performed to explore the module performance under various operating conditions including detector bias voltage, magnetic field, incidence angle, and state of irradiation up to 3×1014 protons per square centimetre. A particular emphasis has been the understanding of the operational consequences of the binary readout scheme. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Charge collection properties of particle detectors made in HV-CMOS technology were investigated before and after irradiation with reactor neutrons. Two different sensor types were designed and processed in 180 and 350 nm technology by AMS. Edge-TCT and charge collection measurements with electrons from 90Sr source were employed. Diffusion of generated carriers from undepleted substrate contributes significantly to the charge collection before irradiation, while after irradiation the drift contribution prevails as shown by charge measurements at different shaping times. The depleted region at a given bias voltage was found to grow with irradiation in the fluence range of interest for strip detectors at the HL-LHC. This leads to large gains in the measured charge with respect to the one before irradiation. The increase of the depleted region was attributed to removal of effective acceptors. The evolution of depleted region with fluence was investigated and modeled. Initial studies show a small effect of short term annealing on charge collection.

Topical Workshop on Electronics for Particle Physics 2015, TWEPP 2015, Lisbon, Portugal, 28 Sep 2015 - 2 Oct 2015 ; Journal of Instrumentation 1611(02), C02005(2016). doi:10.1088/1748-0221/11/02/C02005, The LHC luminosity upgrade, known as the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), will require the replacement of the existing silicon strip tracker and the transistion radiation tracker. Although a baseline design for this tracker exists the ATLAS collaboration and other non-ATLAS groups are exploring the feasibility of using CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) which would be arranged in a strip-like fashion and would take advantage of the service and support structure already being developed for the upgrade. Two test devices made with the AMS H35 process (a High voltage or HV CMOS process) have been subjected to various radiation environments and have performed well. The results of these tests are presented in this paper., Published by Inst. of Physics, London

We present spectra of high-redshift supernovae (SNe) that were taken with the Subaru low resolution optical spectrograph, FOCAS. These SNe were found in SN surveys with Suprime-Cam on Subaru, the CFH12k camera on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). These SN surveys specifically targeted z>1 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). From the spectra of 39 candidates, we obtain redshifts for 32 candidates and spectroscopically identify 7 active candidates as probable SNe Ia, including one at z=1.35, which is the most distant SN Ia to be spectroscopically confirmed with a ground-based telescope. An additional 4 candidates are identified as likely SNe Ia from the spectrophotometric properties of their host galaxies. Seven candidates are not SNe Ia, either being SNe of another type or active galactic nuclei. When SNe Ia are observed within a week of maximum light, we find that we can spectroscopically identify most of them up to z=1.1. Beyond this redshift, very few candidates were spectroscopically identified as SNe Ia. The current generation of super red-sensitive, fringe-free CCDs will push this redshift limit higher., 19 pages, 26 figures. PASJ in press. see http://www.supernova.lbl.gov/2009ClusterSurvey/ for additional information pertaining to the HST Cluster SN Survey

Prior to 1950 nearly all sound recordings were made on mechanical media such as wax, foil, shellac, lacquer, and plastic. Some of these older recordings contain material of great historical value or interest but are damaged, decaying, or now considered too delicate to play. Archives seek to preserve and also create broad access to their collections. An ongoing effort at Berkeley Lab has applied methods of optical metrology and image processing to reconstruct sound stored on these mechanical carriers. This approach was inspired by the use of precision optical metrology to align and fabricate silicon tracking arrays for high-energy physics experiments and by track finding and fitting data analysis methods. The technology has matured to the point that an optical metrology system for sound restoration has been designed and built for the Library of Congress. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We present measurements of \Omega_m and \Omega_{\Lambda} from a blind analysis of 21 high-redshift supernovae using a new technique (CMAGIC) for fitting the multi-color lightcurves of Type Ia supernovae, first introduced in Wang et al. (2003). CMAGIC takes advantage of the remarkably simple behavior of Type Ia supernovae on color-magnitude diagrams, and has several advantages over current techniques based on maximum magnitudes. Among these are a reduced sensitivity to host galaxy dust extinction, a shallower luminosity-width relation, and the relative simplicity of the fitting procedure. This allows us to provide a cross check of previous supernova cosmology results, despite the fact that current data sets were not observed in a manner optimized for CMAGIC. We describe the details of our novel blindness procedure, which is designed to prevent experimenter bias. The data are broadly consistent with the picture of an accelerating Universe, and agree with a flat Universe within 1.7\sigma, including systematics. We also compare the CMAGIC results directly with those of a maximum magnitude fit to the same SNe, finding that CMAGIC favors more acceleration at the 1.6\sigma level, including systematics and the correlation between the two measurements. A fit for w assuming a flat Universe yields a value which is consistent with a cosmological constant within 1.2\sigma.

We present a novel technique for fitting restframe I-band light curves on a data set of 42 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). Using the result of the fit, we construct a Hubble diagram with 26 SNe from the subset at 0.01< z

An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) wafer test system has been developed to provide comprehensive production screening of the ATLAS Semiconductor Tracker front-end chip (ABCD3T). The ABCD3T features a 128-channel analog front-end, a digital pipeline, and communication circuitry, clocked at 40 MHz, which is the bunch crossing frequency at the Large Hadron Collider. The tester measures values and tolerance ranges of all critical IC parameters, including dc parameters, electronic noise, time resolution, clock levels, and clock timing. The tester is controlled by a field-programmable gate array (ORCA3T) programmed to issue the input commands to the IC and to interpret the output data. This allows the high-speed wafer-level IC testing necessary to meet the production schedule. To characterize signal amplitudes and phase margins, the tester utilizes pin-driver, delay, and digital-to-analog converter chips, which control the amplitudes and delays of signals sent to the IC under test. Output signals from the IC under test go through window comparator chips to measure their levels. A probe card has been designed specifically to reduce pickup noise that can affect the measurements. The system can operate at frequencies up to 100 MHz to study the speed limits of the digital circuitry before and after radiation damage. Testing requirements and design solutions are presented.

A detailed description of the integration structures for the barrel region of the silicon strips tracker of the ATLAS Phase-II upgrade for the upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider, the so-called High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), is presented. This paper focuses on one of the latest demonstrator prototypes recently assembled, with numerous unique features. It consists of a shortened, shield-less, and double sided stave, with two candidate power distributions implemented. Thermal and electrical performances of the prototype are presented, as well as a description of the assembly procedures and tools.

The ATLAS experiment is a general purpose detector aiming to fully exploit the discovery potential of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. It is foreseen that after several years of successful data-taking, the LHC physics programme will be extended in the so-called High-Luminosity LHC, where the instantaneous luminosity will be increased up to 5 x 10(34) cm(-2) s(-1). For ATLAS, an upgrade scenario will imply the complete replacement of its internal tracker, as the existing detector will not provide the required performance due to the cumulated radiation damage and the increase in the detector occupancy. The current baseline layout for the new ATLAS tracker is an all-silicon-based detector, with pixel sensors in the inner layers and silicon micro-strip detectors at intermediate and outer radii. The super-module is an integration concept proposed for the strip region of the future ATLAS tracker, where double-sided stereo silicon micro-strip modules are assembled into a low-mass local support structure. An electrical super-module prototype for eight double-sided strip modules has been constructed. The aim is to exercise the multi-module readout chain and to investigate the noise performance of such a system. In this paper, the main components of the current super-module prototype are described and its electrical performance is presented in detail.

The development of Low-Gain Avalanche Detectors has opened up the possibility of manufacturing silicon detectors with signal larger than that of traditional sensors. In this paper we explore the timing performance of Low-Gain Avalanche Detectors, and in particular we demonstrate the possibility of obtaining ultra-fast silicon detector with time resolution of less than 20 picosecond., 10 pages, 10 figures

We have observed the decay ${B}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\overline{D}}^{0}{K}^{+}$, using $3.3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}$ $B\overline{B}$ pairs collected with the CLEO II detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring. We find the ratio of branching fractions $R\ensuremath{\equiv}B({B}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\overline{D}}^{0}{K}^{+})/B({B}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\overline{D}}^{0}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+})\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0.055\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.014\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.005$.

We have observed new channels for $\ensuremath{\tau}$ decays with an $\ensuremath{\eta}$ in the final state. We study 3-prong tau decays, using the $\ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\gamma}$ and $\ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}3{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ decay modes and 1-prong decays with two ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$'s using the $\ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\gamma}$ channel. The measured branching fractions are $B({\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}\ensuremath{\eta}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}})\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}({3.4}_{\ensuremath{-}0.5}^{+0.6}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.6)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ and $B({\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}2{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}\ensuremath{\eta}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}})\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}(1.4\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.6\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.3)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$. We observe clear evidence for ${f}_{1}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\pi}$ substructure and measure $B({\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{f}_{1}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}})\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}({5.8}_{\ensuremath{-}1.3}^{+1.4}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.8)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$. We have also searched for ${\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}(958)$ production and obtain 90% C.L. upper limits $B({\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}})l7.4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$ and $B({\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}{\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}})l8.0\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$.

We have searched for the decays $B\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\mu}{\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{\ensuremath{\mu}}\ensuremath{\gamma}$ and $B\ensuremath{\rightarrow}e{\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{e}\ensuremath{\gamma}$ in a sample of $2.7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}$ charged $B$ decays collected with the CLEO II detector. In the muon channel, we observe no candidates in the signal region and set an upper limit on the branching fraction of $\mathcal{B}(B\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\mu}{\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{\ensuremath{\mu}}\ensuremath{\gamma})l5.2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$ at the 90% confidence level. In the electron channel, we observe five candidates in the signal region and set an upper limit on the branching fraction of $\mathcal{B}(B\ensuremath{\rightarrow}e{\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{e}\ensuremath{\gamma})l2.0\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ at the 90% confidence level.

Pixel detectors with cylindrical electrodes that penetrate the silicon substrate (so called 3D detectors) offer advantages over standard planar sensors in terms of radiation hardness, since the electrode distance is decoupled from the bulk thickness. In recent years significant progress has been made in the development of 3D sensors, which culminated in the sensor production for the ATLAS Insertable B-Layer (IBL) upgrade carried out at CNM (Barcelona, Spain) and FBK (Trento, Italy). Based on this success, the ATLAS Forward Physics (AFP) experiment has selected the 3D pixel sensor technology for the tracking detector. The AFP project presents a new challenge due to the need for a reduced dead area with respect to IBL, and the in-homogeneous nature of the radiation dose distribution in the sensor. Electrical characterization of the first AFP prototypes and beam test studies of 3D pixel devices irradiated non-uniformly are presented in this paper., Comment: RESMDD12 Proceedings, preprint submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods A

We report the discovery of a redshift 1.71 supernova in the GOODS North field. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) ACS spectrum has almost negligible contamination from the host or neighboring galaxies. Although the rest frame sampled range is too blue to include any Si ii line, a principal component analysis allows us to confirm it as a Type Ia supernova with 92% confidence. A recent serendipitous archival HST WFC3 grism spectrum contributed a key element of the confirmation by giving a host-galaxy redshift of 1.713 +/- 0.007. In addition to being the most distant SN Ia with spectroscopic confirmation, this is the most distant Ia with a precision color measurement. We present the ACS WFC and NICMOS 2 photometry and ACS and WFC3 spectroscopy. Our derived supernova distance is in agreement with the prediction of LambdaCDM., 13 pages, 6 figures, published in ApJ with updated analysis

The Semi-Conductor Tracker (SCT) in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) could be subject to various beam loss scenarios. If a severe beam loss event were to occur, it would be beneficial to know how SCT components would be affected. In the SCT detector modules, a key component is the ABCD application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), the onboard readout electronics of the system. This ASIC has design specifications that it should withstand a 5 nC charge application within 25 ns, which is the period of the LHC bunch crossing. The first test performed is designed to test this limit, reaching a maximum of 10 nC deposited in 25 ns. One model for beam loss predicts that a large charge, of the order of 106 MIPS, could be incident on the detector. According to detector studies, this causes a local field breakdown between the backplane of the sensor, held at 450 V, and the strips. In this case the signal seen on the readout strip has a rise time of about 1 μs due to a charge screening effect. A second test is designed to test this discharge scenario, with a maximum of 90 nC deposited in 1 μs.

The ATLAS experiment is preparing for the planned luminosity upgrade of the LHC (the super-luminous LHC or sLHC) with a programme of development for tracking able to withstand an order of greater magnitude radiation fluence and much greater hit occupancy rates than the current detector. This has led to the concept of an all-silicon tracker with an enhanced performance pixel-based inner region and short-strips for much of the higher radii. Both sub-systems employ many common technologies, including the proposed "stave" concept for integrated cooling and support. For the short-strip region, use of this integrated stave concept requires single-sided modules mounted on either side of a thin central lightweight support.Each sensor is divided into four rows of 23.82 mm length strips; within each row, there are 1280 strips of 74.5μm pitch. Well over a hundred prototype sensors are being delivered by Hamamatsu Photonics (HPK) to Japan, Europe and the US.We present results of the first 20 chip ABCN25 ASIC hybrids for these sensors, results of the first prototype 5120 strip module built with 40 ABCN25 read-out ASICs, and the status of the hybrids and modules being developed for the ATLAS tracker upgrade stave programme.

We present a measurement of the volumetric Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) rate out to z ~ 1.6 from the Hubble Space Telescope Cluster Supernova Survey. In observations spanning 189 orbits with the Advanced Camera for Surveys we discovered 29 SNe, of which approximately 20 are SNe Ia. Twelve of these SNe Ia are located in the foregrounds and backgrounds of the clusters targeted in the survey. Using these new data, we derive the volumetric SN Ia rate in four broad redshift bins, finding results consistent with previous measurements at z > 1 and strengthening the case for a SN Ia rate that is equal to or greater than ~0.6 x 10^-4/yr/Mpc^3 at z ~ 1 and flattening out at higher redshift. We provide SN candidates and efficiency calculations in a form that makes it easy to rebin and combine these results with other measurements for increased statistics. Finally, we compare the assumptions about host-galaxy dust extinction used in different high-redshift rate measurements, finding that different assumptions may induce significant systematic differences between measurements., 11 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal. Revised version following referee comments. See the HST Cluster SN Survey website at http://supernova.lbl.gov/2009ClusterSurvey for control time simulations in a machine-readable table and a complete listing of transient candidates from the survey

We report on the measurement of interstrip parameters of p-type silicon strip sensors which we are developing in a large collaboration to be used in a future tracker for the LHC upgrade. We measure on test structures with about 1 cm long strips the interstrip resistance, interstrip capacitance (at 1 MHz) and punch-through protection both pre-rad and after irradiation with 70 MeV protons to a fluence of 1.5×10^13 p/cm^2, corresponding to about 1 MRad, from prototyping runs with Hamamatsu Photonics and Micron Semiconductors. We report the values for a variety of isolation scenarios of p-stops, p-spray and a combination of both.

The recent robust and homogeneous analysis of the world's supernova distance-redshift data, together with cosmic microwave background and baryon acoustic oscillation data, provides a powerful tool for constraining cosmological models. Here we examine particular classes of scalar field, modified gravity, and phenomenological models to assess whether they are consistent with observations even when their behavior deviates from the cosmological constant Lambda. Some models have tension with the data, while others survive only by approaching the cosmological constant, and a couple are statistically favored over LCDM. Dark energy described by two equation of state parameters has considerable phase space to avoid Lambda and next generation data will be required to constrain such physics., Comment: 32 pages, 19 figures

We present a new survey strategy to discover and study high-redshift Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). By targeting massive galaxy clusters at 0.9 0.95, nine of which were in galaxy clusters. This strategy provides an SN sample that can be used to decouple the effects of host-galaxy extinction and intrinsic color in high-redshift SNe, thereby reducing one of the largest systematic uncertainties in SN cosmology.

We present observations of SCP 06F6, an unusual optical transient discovered during the Hubble Space Telescope Cluster Supernova Survey. The transient brightened over a period of ~100 days, reached a peak magnitude of ~21.0 in both i_775 and z_850, and then declined over a similar timescale. There is no host galaxy or progenitor star detected at the location of the transient to a 3 sigma upper limit of i_775 = 26.4 and z_850 = 26.1, giving a corresponding lower limit on the flux increase of a factor of ~120. Multiple spectra show five broad absorption bands between 4100 AA and 6500 AA and a mostly featureless continuum longward of 6500 AA. The shape of the lightcurve is inconsistent with microlensing. The transient's spectrum, in addition to being inconsistent with all known supernova types, is not matched to any spectrum in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) database. We suggest that the transient may be one of a new class., 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Data are available at http://supernova.lbl.gov/2006Transient/

We present a new measurement of the volumetric rate of Type Ia supernova up to a redshift of 1.7, using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) GOODS data combined with an additional HST dataset covering the North GOODS field collected in 2004. We employ a novel technique that does not require spectroscopic data for identifying Type Ia supernovae (although spectroscopic measurements of redshifts are used for over half the sample); instead we employ a Bayesian approach using only photometric data to calculate the probability that an object is a Type Ia supernova. This Bayesian technique can easily be modified to incorporate improved priors on supernova properties, and it is well-suited for future high-statistics supernovae searches in which spectroscopic follow up of all candidates will be impractical. Here, the method is validated on both ground- and space-based supernova data having some spectroscopic follow up. We combine our volumetric rate measurements with low redshift supernova data, and fit to a number of possible models for the evolution of the Type Ia supernova rate as a function of redshift. The data do not distinguish between a flat rate at redshift > 0.5 and a previously proposed model, in which the Type Ia rate peaks at redshift >1 due to a significant delay from star-formation to the supernova explosion. Except for the highest redshifts, where the signal to noise ratio is generally too low to apply this technique, this approach yields smaller or comparable uncertainties than previous work., Accepted for publication in ApJ

The ATLAS SemiConductor Tracker (SCT) was built in three sections: a barrel and two end-caps. This paper describes the design, construction and final integration of the barrel section. The barrel is constructed around four nested cylinders that provide a stable and accurate support structure for the 2112 silicon modules and their associated services. The emphasis of this paper is directed at the aspects of engineering design that turned a concept into a fully-functioning detector, as well as the integration and testing of large sub-sections of the final SCT barrel detector. The paper follows the chronology of the construction. The main steps of the assembly are described with the results of intermediate tests. The barrel service components were developed and fabricated in parallel so that a flow of detector modules, cooling loops, opto-harnesses and Frequency-Scanning-Interferometry (FSI) alignment structures could be assembled onto the four cylinders. Once finished, each cylinder was conveyed to the next site for the mounting of modules to form a complete single barrel. Extensive electrical and thermal function tests were carried out on the completed single barrels. In the next stage, the four single barrels and thermal enclosures were combined into the complete SCT barrel detector so that it could be integrated with the Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT) barrel to form the central part of the ATLAS inner detector. Finally, the completed SCT barrel was tested together with the TRT barrel in noise tests and using cosmic rays. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd and SISSA.

The challenges for the tracking detector systems at the LHC are unprecedented in terms of the number of channels, the required read-out speed and the expected radiation levels. The ATLAS Semiconductor Tracker (SCT) end-caps have a total of about 3 million electronics channels each reading out every 25 ns into its own on-chip 3.3 μ s buffer. The highest anticipated dose after 10 years operation is 1.4 × 1014 cm- 2 in units of 1 MeV neutron equivalent (assuming the damage factors scale with the non-ionising energy loss). The forward tracker has 1976 double-sided modules, mostly of area ∼ 70 cm2, each having 2 × 768 strips read out by six ASICs per side. The requirement to achieve an average perpendicular radiation length of 1.5% X0, while coping with up to 7 W dissipation per module (after irradiation), leads to stringent constraints on the thermal design. The additional requirement of 1500 e- equivalent noise charge (ENC) rising to only 1800 e- ENC after irradiation, provides stringent design constraints on both the high-density Cu/Polyimide flex read-out circuit and the ABCD3TA read-out ASICs. Finally, the accuracy of module assembly must not compromise the 16 μ m (r φ) resolution perpendicular to the strip directions or 580 μ m radial resolution coming from the 40 mrad front-back stereo angle. A total of 2210 modules were built to the tight tolerances and specifications required for the SCT. This was 234 more than the 1976 required and represents a yield of 93%. The component flow was at times tight, but the module production rate of 40-50 per week was maintained despite this. The distributed production was not found to be a major logistical problem and it allowed additional flexibility to take advantage of where the effort was available, including any spare capacity, for building the end-cap modules. The collaboration that produced the ATLAS SCT end-cap modules kept in close contact at all times so that the effects of shortages or stoppages at different sites could be rapidly resolved. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We present Keck diffraction limited H-band photometry of a z~1.3 Type Ia supernova (SN) candidate, first identified in a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) search for SNe in massive high redshift galaxy clusters. The adaptive optics (AO) data were obtained with the Laser Guide Star facility during four observing runs from September to November 2005. In the analysis of data from the observing run nearest to maximum SN brightness, the SN was found to have a magnitude H=23.9 +/- 0.14 (Vega). We present the H-band (approximately rest-frame R) light curve and provide a detailed analysis of the AO photometric uncertainties. By constraining the aperture correction with a nearby (4" separation) star we achieve 0.14 magnitude photometric precision, despite the spatially varying AO PSF., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for Publication in AJ Updated the citations, fixed typos