Construction and performance of a silicon target for the decay-path measurement of long-lived mesons

A telescope made up of thin silicon detectors was built and used as a live target in a high-energy photoproduction experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. Its working principles, construction technique, and the results of tests are reported. This telescope will allow measurement of the decaypath in the range 300\u201310000 \u3bcm