MALTA2, the second generation of the MALTA family Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor, is fully fabricated using Tower’s 180 nm CMOS Imaging Sensor process. Extensive radiation hardness studies have been conducted using mixed hadron beams at CERN SPS to demonstrate their suitability for future High-Energy Physics (HEP) experiments. In this note, the results of the radiation hardness study of the MALTA2 sensor from the 2023 CERN SPS test beam campaign will be presented. Sensors fabricated on Czochralski substrates and high-doping of the n ^- layer, irradiated to 3 × 10 ^15 1-MeV n _eq /cm ^2 , maximum efficiency of 90 % was achieved and the efficiency is further improved to 99 % by increasing the doping concentration in n ^- layer.

The ^46Ar(^3He,d)^47K reaction was performed in inverse kinematics using a radioactive ^46Ar beam produced by the SPIRAL1 facility at GANIL and a cryogenic ^3He target. The AGATA-MUGAST-VAMOS setup allowed the coincident measurement of the γ rays, deuterons and recoiling ^47K isotopes produced by the reaction. The relative cross sections towards the proton-addition states in ^47K point towards a depletion of the πs_1/2 shell. The experimental findings are in good agreement with ab initio calculations, which predict that ^46Ar exhibits a charge density bubble associated with a pronounced proton closed-shell character.

The proposed Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) will utilize high- luminosity high-energy electron+proton (e + p) and electron+nucleus (e + A) collisions to solve several fundamental questions including searching for gluon saturation and studying the proton/nuclear structure. Complementary to the ongoing EIC project detector technical prototype carried out by the ePIC collaboration, a Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (i.e., MALTA2) based fast timing silicon tracking detector (FMT) has been proposed to provide additional hits for track reconstruction in the forward region at the EIC to improve the overall track reconstruction quality. The fast timing resolution of the MALTA2 technology will help reject background events at the EIC as well. Progress of latest MALTA2 R&D, the development of a new MALTA2 quad-sensor prototype module and impacts of the proposed FMT in EIC physics studies will be discussed.

The MALTA family of Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (DMAPS) is produced using Tower 180 nm CMOS technology, specifically targeting radiation-hard applications in the HL-LHC and beyond. Several process modifications have resulted in radiation hardness up to ${3 \times 10^{15}~1 ~\text{MeV}~\text{n}_{\text{eq}} /\text{cm}^2}$ and time resolution below 2 ns, with uniform charge collection efficiency across the chip formed of $512 \times 224$ pixels with a size of $36.4 \times 36.4~\mu\text{m}^2$. This is achieved when adopting high-resistivity Czochralski substrates with backside metallisation to obtain a good propagation of the bias voltage. This contribution will show the most recent results obtained on MALTA2 chip demonstrators, including signal efficiency, noise occupancy and time resolution, at different levels of irradiation as well as the performance of the MALTA telescope permanently installed at the SPS at CERN and used in the test beam campaign in 2021-2023.

MALTA2 is the latest full-scale prototype of the MALTA family of Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (DMAPS) produced in Tower Semiconductor 180 nm CMOS technology. In order to comply with the requirements of High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments, various process modifications and front-end changes have been implemented to achieve low power consumption, reduce Random Telegraph Signal (RTS) noise, and optimise the charge collection geometry. Compared to its predecessors, MALTA2 targets the use of a high-resistivity, thick Czochralski (Cz) substrates in order to demonstrate radiation hardness in terms of detection efficiency and timing resolution up to 3E15 1 MeV neq/cm2 with backside metallisation to achieve good propagation of the bias voltage. This manuscript shows the results that were obtained with non-irradiated and irradiated MALTA2 samples on Cz substrates from the CERN SPS test beam campaign from 2021-2023 using the MALTA telescope.

MALTA is part of the Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel sensors designed in Tower 180 nm CMOS imaging technology. A custom telescope with six MALTA planes has been developed for test beam campaigns at SPS, CERN, with the ability to host several devices under test. The telescope system has a dedicated custom readout, online monitoring integrated into DAQ with realtime hit map, time distribution and event hit multiplicity. It hosts a dedicated fully configurable trigger system enabling to trigger on coincidence between telescope planes and timing reference from a scintillator. The excellent time resolution performance allows for fast track reconstruction, due to the possibility to retain a low hit multiplicity per event which reduces the combinatorics. This paper reviews the architecture of the system and its performance during the 2021 and 2022 test beam campaign at the SPS North Area.

Classical novae are thermonuclear explosions in stellar binary systems, and important sources of 26 Al and 22 Na. While γ rays from the decay of the former radioisotope have been observed throughout the Galaxy, 22 Na remains untraceable. Its half-life (2.6 yr) would allow the observation of its 1.275 MeV γ -ray line from a cosmic source. However, the prediction of such an observation requires good knowledge of its nucleosynthesis. The 22 Na( p , γ ) 23 Mg reaction remains the only source of large uncertainty about the amount of 22 Na ejected. Its rate is dominated by a single resonance on the short-lived state at 7785.0(7) keV in 23 Mg. Here, we propose a combined analysis of particle-particle correlations and velocity-difference profiles to measure femtosecond nuclear lifetimes. The application of this method to the study of the 23 Mg states, places strong limits on the amount of 22 Na produced in novae and constrains its detectability with future space-borne observatories.

The upgrade of the MALTA DMAPS designed in Tower 180 nm CMOS Imaging process will implement the numerous modifications, as well as front-end changes in order to boost the charge collection efficiency after the targeted fluence of 1x10(15) 1 MeVn(eq)/cm(2). The effectiveness of these changes have been demonstrated in recent measurements with a small-scale Mini-MALTA demonstrator chip. Multiple changes in the digital periphery are proposed: The asynchronous address generator will be revised to provide more control over the pulse length. The Synchronization memory will be upgraded with the goal of achieving a sub-nanosecond timing resolution. Serial chip to chip data transfer will be prototyped, in order to gauge the plausibility of implementation on a future full sized chip. Apart from these changes, research of the overall sensor architecture will be discussed as well.

To achieve the physics goals of future colliders, it is necessary to develop novel, radiation-hard silicon sensors for their tracking detectors. We target the replacement of hybrid pixel detectors with Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (DMAPS) that are radiation-hard, monolithic CMOS sensors. We have designed, manufactured and tested the MALTA series of sensors, which are DMAPS in the 180 nm TowerJazz CMOS imaging technology. MALTA have a pixel pitch well below current hybrid pixel detectors, high time resolution (< 2 ns) and excellent charge collection efficiency across pixel geometries. These sensors have a total silicon thickness of between 50-300 mu m, implying reduced material budgets and multiple scattering rates for future detectors which utilise such technology. Furthermore, their monolithic design bypasses the costly stage of bump-bonding in hybrid sensors and can substantially reduce detector costs. This contribution presents the latest results from characterisation studies of the MALTA2 sensors, including results demonstrating the radiation tolerance of these sensors.

State-of-the-art arrays of detectors, that require digital processing, may have a sizeable number of digitalized signal links. This is the case in several experimental nuclear physics instruments. Moreover, the data rate of the sampled signals, defined primary by the signal bandwidth of the individual detectors, may not exhaust the capabilities of a single FPGA transceiver input.The preprocessing is usually carried out in a modern FPGA with transceiver data rate capabilities over 10Gbps. Moreover, cost effective FPGA have a limited number of transceivers for given FPGA processing capabilities. The investigation of a cost-effective and efficient solution to the mismatch between both data rates, optimizing simultaneously the use of the FPGA resources, is the topic of the present work.We have developed a solution based on the Time Domain Multiplexing link aggregation, in the form of a Mezzanine board. This mezzanine combines four channels from an optical or copper input up to 2.5 Gbps to one up to 10Gbps, and serves them to the FPGA via the mezzanine connector. The board itself is controlled by a small FPGA by the Two Wire Interface (TWI) protocol as a standalone intelligent device, so minimum slow control is needed. The solution has been also developed for a motherboard housing a SoM module and FMC connector as an alternative implementation. An associated firmware has been developed to de-aggregate the data in the FPGA and recover the original sampled data, based on JESD204 communication protocol, inside the FPGA. The method has been validated and applications, beyond the development of the AGATA electronics, may be envisioned.

The Advanced GAmma Tracking Array (AGATA) multi detector spectrometer will provide precise information for the study of the properties of the exotic nuclear matter (very unbalanced proton (Z) and neutron (N) numbers) along proton- and neutron- drip lines and of super-heavy nuclei. This is done using the latest technology of particle accelerators. The AGATA spectrometer consists of 180 high purity Germanium detectors. Each detector is segmented into 38 segments. The very harsh project requirements are to measure gamma ray energies with very high resolution (< 1x 10 -3) at a high detector counting rate (50 Kevents / sec / crystal). This results in a very high data transfer rate per crystal (5 to 8 Gbps). The 38 segments are sampled @ 100 MHz with 14 bits of resolution. The samples are continuously transferred to the CAP module which reduces the data rate from 64 Gbps to 5 Gbps. The CAP module also adds continuous monitoring data which results in total outgoing data rate of 10 Gbps. The STARE module is designed to fit between the CAP module and the computer farm. It will package the data from the CAP module and transmit it to the server farm using a 10 Gbps UDP connection with a delivery insurance mechanism implemented to ensure that all data is transferred.

PURPOSE:IORT with mobile linear accelerators is a well-established modality where the dose rate and, therefore, the dose per pulse are very high. The constancy of the dosimetric parameters of the accelerator has to be checked daily. The aim of this work is to develop a phantom with embedded detectors to improve both accuracy and efficiency in the daily test of an IORT linac at the surgery room.METHODS:The developed phantom is manufactured with transparent polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), allocating 6 parallel-plate chambers: a central one to evaluate the on-axis beam output, another on-axis one placed at a fixed depth under the previous one to evaluate the energy constancy and four off-axis chambers to evaluate the flatness and symmetry. To analyse the readings a specific application has been developed.RESULTS:For all chambers and energies, the mean saturation and polarization corrections were smaller than 0.7%. The beam is monitored at different levels of the clinical beam. Output, energy constancy and flatness correlate very well with the correspondent values with the complete applicator. During the first six months of clinical use the beam dosimetric parameters showed excellent stability.CONCLUSIONS:A phantom has been developed with embedded parallel plate chambers attached to the upper applicator part of an IORT linac. The phantom allows a very efficient setup reducing the time to check the parameters. It provides complete dosimetric information (output, energy and flatness) with just one shot and using ionization chambers with minimum saturation effect, as this highly pulsed beam requires.

The NEutron Detector Array (NEDA) project aims at the construction of a new high-efficiency compact neutron detector array to be coupled with large \( \gamma\)-ray arrays such as AGATA. The application of NEDA ranges from its use as selective neutron multiplicity filter for fusion-evaporation reaction to a large solid angle neutron tagging device. In the present work, possible configurations for the NEDA coupled with the Neutron Wall for the early implementation with AGATA has been simulated, using Monte Carlo techniques, in order to evaluate their performance figures. The goal of this early NEDA implementation is to improve, with respect to previous instruments, efficiency and capability to select multiplicity for fusion-evaporation reaction channels in which 1, 2 or 3 neutrons are emitted. Each NEDA detector unit has the shape of a regular hexagonal prism with a volume of about 3.23l and it is filled with the EJ301 liquid scintillator, that presents good neutron-\( \gamma\) discrimination properties. The simulations have been performed using a fusion-evaporation event generator that has been validated with a set of experimental data obtained in the 58Ni + 56Fe reaction measured with the Neutron Wall detector array.

The ^{54}Fe nucleus was populated from a ^{56}Fe beam impinging on a Be target with an energy of E/A=500  MeV. The internal decay via γ-ray emission of the 10^{+} metastable state was observed. As the structure of this isomeric state has to involve at least four unpaired nucleons, it cannot be populated in a simple two-neutron removal reaction from the ^{56}Fe ground state. The isomeric state was produced in the low-momentum (-energy) tail of the parallel momentum (energy) distribution of ^{54}Fe, suggesting that it was populated via the decay of the Δ^{0} resonance into a proton. This process allows the population of four-nucleon states, such as the observed isomer. Therefore, it is concluded that the observation of this 10^{+} metastable state in ^{54}Fe is a consequence of the quark structure of the nucleons.

This paper summarises the mechanical construction and installation of the Tile Calorimeter for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN, Switzerland. The Tile Calorimeter is a sampling calorimeter using scintillator as the sensitive detector and steel as the absorber and covers the central region of the ATLAS experiment up to pseudorapidities ±1.7. The mechanical construction of the Tile Calorimeter occurred over a period of about 10 years beginning in 1995 with the completion of the Technical Design Report and ending in 2006 with the installation of the final module in the ATLAS cavern. During this period approximately 2600 metric tons of steel were transformed into a laminated structure to form the absorber of the sampling calorimeter. Following instrumentation and testing, which is described elsewhere, the modules were installed in the ATLAS cavern with a remarkable accuracy for a structure of this size and weight.

This work compares two possible solutions to achieve a high resolution in a hodoscope based on Plastic Scintillating Fibers (PSF) by obtaining the point of maximum interaction of the radioactive beam with the detector. The two fitting algorithms are the Maximum Likelihood Estimation and a non-linear least-squares fitting with the Levenberg-Marquardt Algorithm. Both approaches have been tested, compared and implemented in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices.

This board will be part of the upgrade for the new electronics for the EXOGAM2 (HP-Ge detector array) and NEDA (BC501A-based neutron detector array), therefore it was necessary to deal with the problem of providing a sampling card with high resolution for new gamma spectroscopy experiments while sampling at very high rates, with a broad bandwidth in order to preserve the shape for further analysis. Pulse shape analysis is of paramount importance in neutron detectors, such as NEDA, based on scintillators that are sensitive to γ-rays as well. High resolution and high speed are often two parameters which conform a trade-off and it is hard to achieve both simultaneously. The aforementioned constraints and the urge of building new sampling electronics to improve the signal analysis in nuclear physics experiments, led to the development of this FADC mezzanine This involves sampling rates up to 250 Msps preserving a high resolution of 11.3 effective bits in order to satisfy the experiment demands. In this work is described the design and the test bench proposed for a proper high speed ADC characterization system and the results obtained up to now.

This work compares two possible solutions to achieve a higher resolution in a hodoscope based on Plastic Scintillating Fibers (PSF) by obtaining the point of maximum incidence of the radioactive beam. The two fitting algorithms proposed have been tested and implemented in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices. On one hand, a probabilistic model based on the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) and on the other hand, non-linear least-squares fit with the Levenberg-Marquardt Algorithm (LMA).

In this work, the development and characterization of a multiple synchronous registers interface communicating with a high-speed serial link and using the Aurora protocol is presented. A detailed description of the developing process and the characterization methods and hardware test benches are also included. This interface will implement the slow control busses of the digitizer cards for the second generation of electronics for the Advanced GAmma Tracking Array (AGATA).