Proposal of a Readout Technique for Low-Pitch Pixel Detectors

The up-to-date pixel detectors applied to high-energy physics experiments implement bidimensional matrixes of sensitive elements that are basically readout via token-based techniques, according to external trigger signals. As the readout time is one of the crucial points of large matrix devices, because it implies the detector dead times, here it is described a novel readout technique which exploits the features of deep-submicron CMOS technologies and should be particularly considered for low-pitch pixel devices. This allows for future applications not only on general pixel detectors but also on trackers and trigger systems, wherever an on-chip data reduction/sparsification unit is required. The proposed readout technique could extend the flexibility of the pixel devices to be also used in first level triggers on tracks in vertex detectors.