Intrinsic time resolution of 3D-trench silicon pixels for charged particle detection

In the last years, high-resolution time tagging has emerged as a promising tool to tackle the problem of high-track density in the detectors of the next generation of experiments at particle colliders. Time resolutions below 50 ps and event average repetition rates of tens of MHz on sensor pixels having a pitch of 50 mu m are typical minimum requirements. This poses an important scientific and technological challenge on the development of particle sensors and processing electronics. The TIMESPOT initiative (which stands for TIME and SPace real-time Operating Tracker) aims at the development of a full prototype detection system suitable for the particle trackers of the next-to-come particle physics experiments. This paper describes the results obtained on the first batch of TIMESPOT silicon sensors, based on a novel 3D MEMS (micro electro-mechanical systems) design. We demonstrate that following this approach, the performance of other ongoing silicon sensor developments can be matched and overcome. In addition, 3D technology has already been proved to be robust against radiation damage. A time resolution of the order of 20 ps has been measured at room temperature suggesting also possible improvements after further optimisations of the front-end electronics processing stage.