Status of the LHCb Pixel Detector

The LHCb experiment at CERN is a general-purpose forward spectrometer at LHC (CERN) optimized for heavy flavour physics and rare decays. It provides a coverage of 2 < 𝜂 < 5 with a momentum resolution of 0.5 % at pT < 20 GeV. A data-set of 10 fb − 1 has been collected at the end of Run 2, followed by a major detector upgrade (Upgrade I), fully replacing the vertex and trigger subsystems [1]. The Vertex Locator (VELO) is a silicon pixel tracking detector in the heart of the LHCb spectrometer. As a higher instantaneous luminosity of 2 ∗ 10 33 𝑠 − 1 𝑐𝑚 − 2 is expected during Run 3 (2022 - 2025), the VELO has been upgraded by a brand-new detector. This new VELO replaces the silicon-strip technology with new 55 micrometers pitch pixels, operating as close as a 5 mm radius from the LHC beams. The VELO new readout ASIC, called VeloPix, is capable of operating at the 40 MHz collision rate, reaching 900 MHits/s. The detector is built with a modular design, composed of 52 modules divided into two-detector halves. The production of the required modules was completed in 2021, leading to the detector assembly phase. Both detector halves were successfully installed in May 2022. In this paper, the final steps of construction and installation will be shown. The detector is now under commissioning with beam and preliminary results will also be presented.