Facilities
The Liverpool Semiconductor Detector Centre (LSDC) has been created by means of funds secured by the Department of Physics and the Astrophysics Institute of Liverpool John Moores University from the UK government’s Joint Infrastructure Fund initiative. Since 1998, the investment of £3.1M has enabled the establishment of 450 m^2 of clean room equipped with ‘state-of-the-art’ wire-bonding, wafer-probing and metrology equipment, and the complete refurbishment of the Oliver Lodge Laboratory workshops. This investment has been administered by PPARC and carried out by the Buildings & Estates and Physics Departments of the University, using mostly local contractors. Officially opened on the 11th of September, 2003, by Sir David King, the government's Chief Scientific Advisor, the LSDC is now in operation. [ News report ]The LSDC gives Liverpool a uniquely well equipped such facility for a Physics Department. It makes possible the assembly and testing of large integrated detector systems based on sensors with spatial resolution of typically a few microns. It includes facilities for the construction of very large arrays of such detectors to allow areas of many square metres to be instrumented to detect the presence and spatial distribution of ionising radiation with micron precision.
The LSDC has also already made possible major involvement in R&D work, funded by PPARC and the EU, in preparation for the construction of ‘pixel’ arrays of detectors for experiments at accelerator projects beyond LHC. New EPSRC/MRC funding for semiconductor detector developments for Nuclear Physics is now also forthcoming. The Nuclear Physics Group will apply for further grants for the AGATA project and a number of applied projects. Its facilities are also beginning to be exploited by the Astrophysics Research Institute of John Moores University where staff are now pursuing instrument work, again funded by PPARC, following the successful deployment of the ‘robotic’ Liverpool Telescope at La Palma. New funding bids to Research Council Technology initiatives (e g Basic Technology Fund, Faraday Partnership), multi-disciplinary proposals within the University and beyond are also being actively prepared.
The LSDC has proved invaluable to the groups using it and is providing a facility to support collaborations with other Departments within Liverpool as well as within the large international collaborations of `Big Science’. It has already allowed projects to be won for the UK which would otherwise have ended up being led by overseas groups. The leadership this wins for the UK is important for our scientific prestige and the detailed understanding of the detectors we produce will bring us significant advantages in interpreting the data from these highly complex experiments.
Below is a map of the centre. Move the mouse over the rooms to identify them, and click for further information and images.
Created: September 2003
Created by: Scott Lindsay