The ATLAS experiment team visits the IMB-CNM Clean Room

The management of the ATLAS experiment, one of two general-purpose detectors at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, visited the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM-CSIC) and the Institut de Física d'Altes Energies (IFAE) on the 13th and 14th of July 2022 and participated in a two-day meeting with the researchers and students of both institutes.

ATLAS representatives had the possibility to visit the IMB-CNM Micro and Nanofabrication Clean Room facilities and they took a close look at the microfabrication processes necessary to fabricate the 3D and the LGAD detectors that will be used in the ITK pixels and the HGTD layer. They also visited the Clean Room facility of IFAE, where the sensor pixels are mounted and tested on the boards.

The researches discussed on the Spanish contribution to the inner layers of the ATLAS detector and the timing detector for the HGTD new layer that will be installed in 2026.

Involvement with the CERN

The IMB-CNM is involved with the CERN since the late 90s and has collaborated with the CERN through different partnerships along the years. It includes a new subdetector incorporated into the ATLAS experiment, one of the five particle detectors of the Large Hadron Collider, LHC, and it is a technicall associate of the LHCb experiment. The sensors were developed in the Clean Room. The Radiation Detectors Group is the IMB-CNM team leading these collaborations.