New-generation Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) development in ALICE: the project ALMIRA

by Dr Davide Chiappara

Thursday 18 Jun 2026, 16:30 → 17:30 Europe/Rome

P2A (Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia - Edificio Paolotti)

Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) are a detector technology for charged-particles tracking where the same silicon die hosts both the sensing element and the circuitry necessary to process those data. This approach enables the efficient readout of billions of channels while maintaining a low material budget, making MAPS particularly attractive for applications in nuclear and high-energy physics experiments.

 

Within this context, ALMIRA (ALice3 Monolithic Integrated tRacking Asic) is a project aimed at advancing next-generation monolithic tracking devices for the proposed upgrade of the ALICE experiment during the LHC Long Shutdown 4 (LS4), with installation foreseen in 2034–2035. The project is working on a family of designs optimized for different detector regions, ranging from the Vertex Detector to the Outer Tracker.

 

The specifications for such devices (such as spatial resolution, timing resolution, power consumption, and Time-over-Threshold capabilities) pose a significant engineering challenge, requiring the employment of innovative approaches and readout architectures. The optimization process involves navigating a highly multidimensional parameter space, where complex trade-offs cannot be reliably assessed through analytical estimates alone. Thus, prototyping studies are being developed to match the design choices with the performance targets.

 

This seminar will discuss the challenges of MAPS design for ALICE and present how a prototyping-driven approach can guide the detector design, enhancing the scientific reach of the experiment and setting new baselines for future detectors for experiments in nuclear and particle physics.