Studies of radiation damage in silicon microstrip detectors for the DØ silicon tracker

This is a report on the current studies performed by the DØ Collaboration at Fermilab (Batavia, IL) on the radiation damage issues relevant to the development of Silicon Vertex Detectors. A short description of the irradiation facility that has been implemented at Fermilab is presented, followed by an overview of the Silicon Tracker characteristics and an estimate of the radiation levels expected during its operation. Preliminary results of two proton irradiation tests show no damage to coupling capacitors and polysilicon resistors. A short term damage constant of (5.9±1.0)×10^-17 A/cm was found for the leakage current. Interstrip resistance is greatly reduced after a proton fluence of (1.54±0.24)×10¹³ cm ^-2