The upgrade of the ALICE Inner Tracking System- Status of the R&D on monolithic silicon pixel

As a major part of its upgrade plans, the ALICE experiment schedules the installation of a novel Inner Tracking System (ITS) during the Long Shutdown 2 (LS2) of the LHC in 2018/19. It will replace the present silicon tracker with seven layers of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) and significantly improve the detector performance in terms of tracking and rate capabilities. The choice of technology has been guided by the tight requirements on the material budget of 0.3 % X/X0/layer for the three innermost layers and backed by the significant progress in the field of MAPS in recent years. The pixel chips are manufactured in the TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS imaging sensor process on wafers with a high resistivity epitaxial layer. Within the ongoing R&D phase, several sensor chip prototypes have been developed and produced on different epitaxial layer thicknesses and resistivities. These chips are being characterized for their performance before and after irradiation using source tests, test beam and measurements using an infrared Laser. This contribution will provide an overview of the ALICE ITS upgrade focussing on the pixel related R&D activities