Practical experience: Muon detectors

NIKHEF is closely involved in the development of various parts of the ATLAS (CERN) detector.  An important subject is the detection en momentum measurement of muons ('heavy electrons').  Prototype development of a so-called muon chamber takes largely part at the NIKHEF and a completely operational prototype is foreseen for 1999.  The ATLAS-NIKHEF group is committed to produce hundredth of these detectors over the period 1999 - 2003, well before the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) becomes operational (2005).

A muon chamber is build out of 432 drift tubes (length:   4.9 m, diameter:  30 mm).  Each tube is equipped with a thin (50 µm) tungsten wire in the central axis.  The tubes are glued together into two stiff 'multi layers'.  These multi layers are glued at both sides of a 'spacer' made from aluminium profiles, providing the rigidity of the chamber as well as mountings for chamber fixation.

The production facility for these chambers is now being built at NIKHEF.

During the assembly of the first 'production' prototype, tools for Quality Control need to be installed.  These tools include:

	a device for measuring the wire tension of the finished tubes
	a device for measuring the gas leak rate of finished tubes
	a device for measuring the High Voltage performance of the tubes
	several devices for measuring mechanical parameters like the bending of several profiles, as well as the precise positioning of some objects and high-precision mechanical reference pieces

All these devices will be controlled by powerful PCs (Windows NT), using the LabView and BridgeView software packages for the instrumentation, as well as Visual C++ and ACCESS as software development environment and database, respectively.

The project will include to realise Quality Assurance (Q&A) procedures, the actual tests of several chamber parts, and the development of software.

Additional information will be provided by:

	Prof. Dr. Ing. B. van Eijk
	Dr. Ir. H. van der Graaf

Latest change: 13 January 1999

nederlandse versie

email: vaneijk@nikhef.nl