Diamond is a nearly ideal material for detecting ionising radiation. Its ou
tstanding radiation hardness, fast charge collection and low leakage curren
t allow it to be used in high radiation environments. These characteristics
make diamond sensors particularly appealing for use in the next generation
of pixel detectors. Over the last year, the RD42 collaboration has worked
with several groups that have developed pixel readout electronics in order
to optimise diamond sensors for bump-bonding This effort resulted in an ope
rational diamond pixel sensor that was tested in a pion beam. We demonstrat
e that greater than 98% of the channels were successfully bump-bonded and f
unctioning. The device shows good overall hit efficiency as well as clear s
patial hit correlation to tracks measured in a silicon reference telescope.
A position resolution of 14.8 mu m was observed, consistent with expectati
ons given the detector pitch. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights res
erved.