Abstract
3D silicon sensors, where plasma micromachining is used to etch deep narrow apertures in the silicon substrate to form electrodes of PIN junctions, were successfully manufactured in facilities in Europe and USA. In 2011 the technology underwent a qualification process to establish its maturity for a medium scale production for the construction of a pixel layer for vertex detection, the Insertable B-Layer (IBL) at the CERN-LHC ATLAS experiment. The IBL collaboration, following that recommendation from the review panel, decided to complete the production of planar and 3D sensors and endorsed the proposal to build enough modules for a mixed IBL sensor scenario where 25% of 3D modules populate the forward and backward part of each stave. The production of planar sensors will also allow coverage of 100% of the IBL, in case that option was required. This paper will describe the processing strategy which allowed successful 3D sensor production, some of the Quality Assurance (QA) tests performed during the pre-production phase and the production yield to date.