Construction techniques and performances of a full size prototype Micromegas chamber for the ATLAS muon spectrometer upgrade

A full scale prototype of a Micromegas precision tracking chamber for the upgrade of the ATLAS detector at the LHC Collider has been built between October 2015 and April 2016. This paper describes in detail the procedures used in constructing the single modules of the chamber in various INFN laboratories and the final assembly at the Frascati National Laboratories (LNF). Results of the chamber exposure to the CERN H8 beam line in June 2016 are also presented. The performances achieved in the construction and the results of the test beam are compared with the requirements, which are imposed by the severe environment during the data-taking of the LHC foreseen for the next years

Dedicated scanner for laboratory investigations on cone-beam CT/SPECT imaging of the breast

We describe the design, realization and basic tests of a prototype Cone-Beam Breast Computed Tomography (CBBCT) scanner, combined with a SPECT head consisting of a compact pinhole gamma camera based on a photon counting CdTe hybrid pixel detector. The instrument features a 40 μm focal spot X-ray tube, a 50 μm pitch flat panel detector and a 1-mm-thick, 55 μm pitch CdTe pixel detector. Preliminary imaging tests of the separate CT and gamma-ray units are presented showing a resolution in CT of 3.2 mm-1 at a radial distance of 50 mm from the rotation axis and that the 5 and 8 mm hot masses (99mTc labeled with a 15:1 activity ratio with respect to the background) can be detected in planar gamma-ray imaging with a contrast-to-noise ratio of about 4

The high granularity and large solid angle detection array EXPADES

The EXPADES (EXotic PArticle DEtection System) detector array consists of 16 Double Side Silicon Strip Detectors (DSSSD) with active areas of 64 7 64 mm2, arranged in 8 \u394E (40/50 \u3bcm)\u2013E (300 \u3bcm) telescopes. All detector faces are segmented into 32 7 2-mm wide strips, ensuring a 2 7 2 mm2 pixel configuration. Eight ionization chambers can be alternatively used as \u394E stages or, if needed, as an additional third layer for more complex triple telescopes. The signals from silicon \u394E layers and from ionization chambers are read by standard electronics, while innovative 32-channel ASIC chips are employed for the readout of the E stages. The results of off-line tests with alpha sources and from the first in-beam experiment with a 17O beam are presented

The high granularity and large solid angle detection array EXPADES

The EXPADES (EXotic PArticle DEtection System) detector array consists of 16 Double Side Silicon Strip Detectors (DSSSD) with active areas of 64 7 64 mm2, arranged in 8 \u394E (40/50 \u3bcm)-E (300 \u3bcm) telescopes. All detector faces are segmented into 32 7 2-mm wide strips, ensuring a 2 7 2 mm2 pixel configuration. Eight ionization chambers can be alternatively used as \u394E stages or, if needed, as an additional third layer for more complex triple telescopes. The signals from silicon \u394E layers and from ionization chambers are read by standard electronics, while innovative 32-channel ASIC chips are employed for the readout of the E stages. The results of off-line tests with alpha sources and from the first in-beam experiment with a 17O beam are presented.\ua9 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

R&D results from the NOE scintillating fiber calorimeter

The development of the NOE calorimeter, based on scintillating fiber technology, has undergone four years of intense R&D activity. Measurements of light attenuation and time resolution have been carried out on a variety of commercially available scintillating fibers. Both these parameters are important for the optimization of the design of the NOE calorimeter. Experimental results on the fiber attenuation length and light yield make us confident on the possibility to build a 8 x 8 m(2) cross-section calorimeter without noticeable loss of signal. The time resolution is resulted to be of the order of 1 ns, sufficient for up/down discrimination in the final calorimeter setup, by means of the time-of-flight method. Several tests performed to optimize the elementary cell of the calorimeter are also described. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

EXPADES: A new detection system for charged particles in experiments with RIBs

A new detection apparatus, named EXPADES (EXotic PArticle DEtection System), has been expressly designed to be used in nuclear physics experiments involving exotic beams and devoted to the study of nuclear reactions (scattering, direct reactions, breakup. . .) at energies around the Coulomb barrier. It consists of double-side segmented silicon detectors arranged in a compact configuration around the target. A very large solid angle, a wide angular range, high granularity and a highly miniaturized readout electronics, based on a new production commercial ASIC chipset, are the main features of the system

The NOE scintillating fiber calorimeter prototype test results

An intense R&D program has been carried out by the NOE Collaboration during the last years, to develop a massive fine grain scintillating fiber calorimeter, to be used, in combination with an appropriate target, in a Long Base Line experiment at the CERN to Gran Sasso (CNGS) neutrino beam. The performance of a 4 ton NOE calorimeter prototype exposed to a test beam at CERN PS is shown. Results on the linearity, electromagnetic and hadronic energy resolution are reported and compared with the Monte Carlo predictions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

EXPADES: a new detection system for charged particles in experiments with RIBs

A new detection apparatus, named EXPADES (EXotic PArticle DEtection System), has been expressly designed to be used in nuclear physics experiments involving exotic beams and devoted to the study of nuclear reactions (scattering, direct reactions, breakup ...) at energies around the Coulomb barrier. It consists of double-side segmented silicon detectors arranged in a compact configuration around the target. A very large solid angle, a wide angular range, high granularity and a highly miniaturized readout electronics, based on a new production commercial ASIC chipset, are the main features of the system

The experimental set-up of the RIB in-flight facility EXOTIC

We describe the experimental set-up of the Radioactive Ion Beam (RIB) in-flight facility EXOTIC consisting of: (a) two position-sensitive Parallel Plate Avalanche Counters (PPACs), dedicated to the event-by-event tracking of the produced RIBs and to time of flight measurements and (b) the new high-granularity compact telescope array EXPADES (EXotic PArticle DEtection System), designed for nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics experiments employing low-energy light RIBs. EXPADES consists of eight \u394E\u2013Eres telescopes arranged in a cylindrical configuration around the target. Each telescope is made up of two Double Sided Silicon Strip Detectors (DSSSDs) with a thickness of 40/60 \u3bcm and 300 \u3bcm for the \u394E and Eres layer, respectively. Additionally, eight ionization chambers were constructed to be used as an alternative \u394E stage or, in conjunction with the entire DSSSD array, to build up more complex triple telescopes. New low-noise multi-channel charge-sensitive preamplifiers and spectroscopy amplifiers, associated with constant fraction discriminators, peak-and-hold and Time to Amplitude Converter circuits were developed for the electronic readout of the \u394E stage. Application Specific Integrated Circuit-based electronics was employed for the treatment of the Eres signals. An 8-channel, 12-bit multi-sampling 50 MHz Analog to Digital Converter, a Trigger Supervisor Board for handling the trigger signals of the whole experimental set-up and an ad hoc data acquisition system were also developed. The performance of the PPACs, EXPADES and of the associated electronics was obtained offline with standard \u3b1 calibration sources and in-beam by measuring the scattering process for the systems 17O+58Ni and 17O+208Pb at incident energies around their respective Coulomb barriers and, successively, during the first experimental runs with the RIBs of the EXOTIC facility