MPGD 2026

Development challenges of a new large area Micromegas detector for AMBER experiment and optimisation of their ToRA based readout

Not scheduled

20m

Masarykova Kolej Congress Centre, Czech Technical University in Prague

Poster Electronics

Speaker

Lorenzo Maria Marcellino (Universita e INFN Torino (IT))

Description

In the context of the Physics-Beyond Colliders initiative at CERN, AMBER (NA66) is a fixed-target experiment at M2 beam line of the SPS, devoted to various fundamental QCD measurements. Several upgrades of the spectrometer are planned for the medium and long-term AMBER program. Among the R&D plans, part of the COMPASS Multi-Wire Proportional Chambers (MWPCs) will be replaced to address their structural and readout aging. The chosen technology to substitute the most aged MWPCs is the Micro-Pattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGD), specifically a resistive bulk MICRO-MEsh-GAseous Structure (MM) detector. Three adjacent large-area Micromegas modules each having an active area of about 1x0.5 m^2, will cover a total active area of ~1x1.5 m^2 of the detector. Each module has two anode planes with face-to-face configuration and a common cathode providing an XUV space measurement. The resistive layer for the Lateral modules is formed by a uniform 10MOhm/sq Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) layer above the readout strips, whereas the Central module is planed with a double resistive layer configuration. The design challenges are coming from the size and length of the ~1.2m long strips with a 1 mm pitch and width of 750, 250 and 80 microns for the X, U and V planes. An optimisation of the signal path and of capacitance is needed together with a control of the charge sharing efficiency to optimise the matching to the designed 64-channel mixed-signal ToRA (Torino Readout for AMBER) ASIC.

We present work done on study of the detector structure aimed at the understanding of signal properties provided to the ToRA based RO. Togher with the detector studies an overview of the characterization of the ToRA v1 ASIC will be give and result of the ToRA ASIC operation on detector will be discussed. Consideration on the possible optimisations of the next detector modules and additional requirements for ToRA v2 will be discussed.