MAPS application in the STAR and ALICE Experiments

Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) offer a set of highly desirable characteristics for high precision tracking of charged particles. These characteristics include relatively high readout speed, low mass and radiation length, low power dissipation and cost and complexity savings over hybrid detectors. These features along with reasonable radiation tolerance make them ideal candidates for the current heavy ion experiments at colliders. We will describe the principles of operation and the design and performance of the MAPS used in the Soleniodal Tracker at RHIC (STAR) PiXeL (PXL) vertex detector and the A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE) Inner Tracking System (ITS) upgrade. In addition, we will show that the performance at STAR demonstrates the value of the technology. We will also give the performance that is expected to be achieved with the ITS upgrade at the ALICE detector at the CERN.