The STAR Silicon Vertex Tracker: A Large Area Silicon Drift Detector

Abstract The Solenoidal Tracker At RHIC-Silicon Vertex Tracker (STAR-SVT) is a three barrel microvertex detector based upon silicon drift detector technology. As designed for the STAR-SVT, silicon drift detectors (SDDs) are capable of providing unambiguous two-dimensional hit position measurements with resolutions on the order of 20 μm in each coordinate. Achievement of such resolutions, particularly in the drift direction coordinate, depends upon certain characteristics of silicon and drift detector geometry that are uniquely critical for silicon drift detectors hit measurements. Here we describe features of the design of the STAR-SVT SDDs and the front-end electronics that are motivated by such characteristics.