Thesis defense of Sascha Dungs

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is undergoing a major upgrade to the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), which will deliver a significantly higher number of proton-proton collisions per bunch crossing.This upgrade will allow for more precise measurements and enhance the sensitivity to phenomena beyond the Standard Model.To cope with the significantly higher radiation levels and data rates, the ATLAS experiment’s current tracking detector will be replaced by an all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk). Demonstrator programs are essential to test novel developed components and integration concepts under realistic conditions before large-scale production. This thesis contributes to the ITk Pixel Outer Barrel Demonstrator program through comprehensive quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) studies of hybrid pixel modules. The assembly and integration workflow was analyzed in detail to identify critical steps affecting module performance, leading to recommendations for improved reliability and production consistency. In parallel, a new setup for temperature-dependent energy calibration was developed. The system employs an X-ray source covering a broad energy range, enabling precise calibration studies of RD53A-based modules and providing the capability to investigate for example irradiated sensors in future work. Furthermore, a new calibration routine for the identification and masking of noisy pixels was developed and successfully integrated into the operation of the current ATLAS Pixel Detector.This method significantly accelerates the generation of noise masks and improves the efficiency of detector calibration during data-taking.