Reliability studies of planar silicon detectors

For future large scale, long term applications of silicon particle detectors in high energy physics experiments, e.g. in proton or electron colliders, it is necessary to evaluate the reliability of such detectors. An automated measurement apparatus has been built, which is used to test planar silicon detectors for several days or weeks, both with and without irradiation. Defective detectors were studied with SEM and EBIC microscopy. Special test structures were designed to evaluate and possibly improve detector characteristics