Resistive Plate Chamber Detector Construction and Certification: State-of-the-Art Facilities at the Max Planck Institute for Physics, in Partnership with Industrial Partners

TL;DR

This paper describes the development of a scalable, industrial-grade production and certification facility for Resistive Plate Chambers at the Max Planck Institute, enabling large-scale, high-quality detector manufacturing for high-energy physics experiments like the HL-LHC.

Contribution

It introduces a new industrial partnership and scalable assembly methodology for RPC detectors, validated through prototyping and extensive testing for high-energy physics applications.

Findings

Successful transfer of research assembly techniques to industrial processes

Validation of large-scale RPC prototypes with performance comparable to small prototypes

Extended longevity testing confirming detector reliability

Abstract

Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) featuring 1 mm gas volumes combined with high-pressure phenolic laminate (HPL) electrodes provide excellent timing resolution down to a few hundred picoseconds, along with spatial resolution on the order of a few millimeters. Thanks to their relatively low production cost and robust performance in high-background environments, RPCs have become essential components for instrumenting large detection areas in high-energy physics experiments. The growing demand for these advanced RPC detectors, particularly for the High-Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), necessitates the establishment of new production facilities capable of delivering high-quality detectors at an industrial scale. To address this requirement, a dedicated RPC assembly and certification facility has been developed at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich, leveraging strategic collaborations with industrial partners MIRION and PTS. This partnership facilitated the transfer of advanced, research-level assembly methodologies into robust, scalable industrial processes. Through a structured, phased prototyping and certification approach, initial tests on small-scale ($40 \times 50 \, cm^2$) prototypes validated the scalability and applicability of optimized production procedures to large-scale ($1.0 \times 2.0 \, m^2$) RPC detectors. Currently, the project has entered its final certification phase, involving extensive performance and longevity testing, including a year-long irradiation campaign at CERN's Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++). This article details the development and successful industrial implementation of novel assembly techniques, highlighting the enhanced capabilities and reliability of RPC detectors prepared through this industrial-academic collaboration, ensuring readiness for upcoming challenges in high-energy physics detector instrumentation.