Development of mass-production technique of the ATLAS thin gap chamber in Japan

The thin gap chambers (TGCs) are used for the muon trigger system in the end-cap regions of the ATLAS detector. As the anode-cathode distance is small, 1.4 mm, chamber flatness is essential to achieve a uniform gas gain over the chamber. The TGC mass production phase at High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) started in January 2001. In order to perform a stable production with high quality we developed a chamber closing system. When we glue two half- chambers together, we sandwich them with a granite table and an aluminum honeycomb panel that keep the chamber flat from both sides. By using silk screens, we also control the quantity of epoxy adhesive that affects the chamber thickness. Owing to these developments, we can achieve the flatness of less than 100 mu m. Uniformity of detection efficiency of the TGC is measured with a cosmic-ray test bench at Kobe University. We have tested 300 TGCs so far. Position dependence of the efficiency is measured with a granularity of 5 mm- by-5 mm. The average efficiency over the tested chambers is achieved to be 99 % excluding the wire supports and spacers. (9 refs)

Techniques developed for the ATLAS Thin Gap Chambers mass production in Japan

The Thin Gap Chambers (TGCs) are used for the muon trigger system in the end-cap regions of the ATLAS detector. The TGC mass production phase at High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) started in January 2001. As the anode-cathode distance is small, 1.4 mm, chamber flatness is essential to achieve a uniform gas gain over the chamber. In order to perform a stable production with high quality we developed a chamber closing system. When we glue two half-chambers together, we sandwich them between a granite table and an aluminum honeycomb panel to keep the chamber flat from both sides. By using silk screens, we control the quantity of epoxy adhesive that affects the chamber thickness. Due to these developments, we can achieve the flatness of less than 100 µm. Uniformity of detection efficiency of the TGC is measured with a cosmic-ray test bench at Kobe University. So far we have tested 300 TGCs. Position dependence of the efficiency is measured with a granularity of 5mm-by-5mm. The average efficiency over the tested chambers is achieved to be 99 % excluding the wire supports and spacers

Cosmic ray test system for the ATLAS thin gap chamber modules at KOBE

Thin gap chamber modules giving function of forward muon trigger to the ATLAS detector in the LHC experiment have been constructed at High Energy Research Organization (KEK) in Japan and their performances have been checked at Kobe University. A large-scale test system specially designed for measuring uniformity of the detection efficiencies and the timing resolution of 8 TGC modules at the same time was successfully operated. Each TGC module had 72 anode wire channels and 64 cathode strip channels (in total 1088 readout channels for 8 modules). Drift tubes consisted of 12 layers (total 428 tubes), between which the TGC modules are put, determined trajectories of cosmic rays. Hit pattern and timing of all detector signals (Trigger counter. Drift tubes and TGCs) were measured by using VME modules. In regular data acquisition situation, i.e. about effective 19 Hz trigger rate from scintillation counters and 73% tracking efficiency by the drift tubes, the detection efficiency of each layer by 5 mm * 5 mm region of 8 TGC modules (24 layers) was measured using about 7 million cosmic ray tracks per module in 10 days. 306 modules were already inspected at June 2003. (7 refs)