ALICE honours industries

The third annual ALICE Awards ceremony recognizes three companies for their contribution to the experiment's detector.


The ALICE Awards winners pictured with CERN Secretary-General, Maximilian Metzger, during the ceremony.

Three industries were honoured at the ALICE Awards ceremony on 17 March for their exceptional work on the collaboration's detector. Representatives from the companies accepted their awards at the ceremony, which was also attended by CERN Secretary-General Maximilian Metzger and members of the ALICE Collaboration Board.

VTT Microelectronics of Finland received an award for the production of the thin bump bonded ladders (detector arrays, each consisting of 40 960 active cells) for the silicon pixel detector (SPD) in the inner tracking system. A number of technical hurdles had to be overcome: complex and expensive equipment was procured or upgraded, and processes underwent a detailed study and careful tuning. The ladders have a high and stable yield and the production will soon be completed. The ALICE SPD ladders are today the thinnest ever produced and mounted on a pixel detector.

CANBERRA Semiconductors N.V. of Belgium received an award for its production of silicon detectors for the ALICE inner tracking system. The technologies involved for the pixel, the drift and double-sided micro strips required high performance and technological expertise. The most demanding detector, the silicon drift, was developed according to a joint programme between ALICE and Canberra. The delivery of the pixel and the double-sided strips was on time, and Canberra increased its micro strip production when another company was unable to produce the amount expected. Delivery of the drift strips is now at 60 percent of the total and completion is expected to be on time.

Note Lund AB of Sweden received an award for manufacturing the 4800 ALICE time projection chamber (TPC) front-end cards. The front-end cards (FEC) contain the complete read-out chain for the amplification, shaping, digitisation, processing and buffering of the TPC signals. This board has to process and store signals with a high resolution and range and minimal degradation of precision. Note Lund first produced two prototypes consisting respectively of 50 FECs and 200 FECs. Then, together with the ALICE TPC Collaboration engineers, the company refined the layout of the board and the manufacturing procedure. Mass production started in September 2004 and has progressed according to schedule and within budget. All FECs have been delivered, and about 93 percent of the boards passed the functional and electrical acceptance tests.