Abstract:
Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs) are widely used as an amplification stage in gaseous detectors. They consist of a 50 µm thick polyimide foil which is cladded on both sides by 5 µm copper. In a photolithographic process, microscopic holes (for standard GEM foils: diameter: 70 µm, pitch: 140 µm) are etched into this structure. Up to now, GEM foils are only produced at the PCB workshop at CERN.
The new Research and Technology Center for Detector Physics (FTD) in Bonn has recently commissioned commissioned new infrastructure facilitating the production of micropatterned structures like GEMs. This infrastructure includes several wet benches, a dry film laminator, an exposition machine and a mask-less aligner. With these machines, we have successfully produced an initial functional standard GEM. In the future, our research agenda includes the exploration of GEMs with different geometries as well as the production of other micropattern structures, e.g. InGrids.
In this talk, I will go through the individual steps for the GEM production and how they are performed in Bonn. First measurement results will be presented, as well as our plans for the future.