MSGC Development for HERA-B

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of MSGC detectors with GEM pre-amplification for the HERA-B experiment, enhancing robustness and reliability in high-radiation, high-flux conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel MSGC design incorporating GEM pre-amplification to improve durability and performance under intense particle fluxes and radiation.

Findings

GEM pre-amplification significantly increases MSGC robustness.

The new design tolerates high particle fluxes and radiation doses.

Enhanced detector reliability demonstrated in HERA-B conditions.

Abstract

The Inner Tracker System of the HERA-B experiment at DESY consists of 184 Microstrip Gas Chambers (MSGC) with a total number of 147 456 electronic read out channels. The detectors have to cope with particle fluxes up to 25 kHz/mm**2 and to tolerate radiation doses of 1 Mrad per year. During the development of these chambers it was found that conventional MSGC, operated in intenses hadronic fluxes, are rapidly destroyed due to induced discharges. The introduction of a Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) as pre-amplification structure offers the possibility to build robust and reliable detectors allowing for ample gain reserve in the hostile environment of HERA-B.