Commercial and cost effective production of Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) Foils

Abstract

The nuclear and high energy physics research community is constantly searching for new and improved tracking and radiation detectors. The introduction of micropattern detectors has opened new opportunities for improving the rate capabilities, as well as the spatial and time resolution of particle detectors in these applications. GEM detectors in particular have received enormous interest for use in detectors planned for a number of new and upgraded experiments at many different research facilities. These include both the STAR and PHENIX experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory, experiments at the Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and at the future electron-positron Linear Collider. At the present time, CERN is not able to supply foils in sufficient quantities to accommodate the needs of these experiments. Compounding this problem, there is a strong interest in GEM foils for numerous other applications, such as in astrophysics, medical imaging and detectors for homeland security. It would therefore be of significant benefit to the research community to develop a commercial source of GEM foils for all of these applications. Tech-Etch is in a unique position to develop this technology for commercial use. Tech-Etch has not only experience in numerousmore » related high precision etched Kapton® products, but it also has strong ties with several research institutions (namely Brookhaven, Yale and MIT) that can help develop and evaluate the performance of the GEM foils produced at Tech-Etch. Additionally, since Tech-Etch is a small company, it also has the capability to produce a large variety of part configurations, as well as the flexibility to shift production methods, equipment, and chemistry to optimize the GEM foil manufacturing process without being constrained by existing work running on high volume continuous coil equipment.« less