Morphological analysis for quality assurance in GEM foils

Abstract

The Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) is one of the most popular and powerful technologies for gaseous ionization detectors used in high energy physics, medical physics and other applications. One of the fundamental elements of a GEM are foils with micro perforations; the quality of such perforations is determinant for an optimal performance of the GEM. In this work we study and develop different computational methods (implemented in java programming language), in order to determine the quality of GEM-foils from high resolution images of the foils. This computational method will provide an automatic and high precision alternative to the present procedures which are very expensive, time taking and imprecise, limiting the development and application of this important technology of detectors. The present method can be extended to other high resolution image analysis useful for nanostructures and microstructures. A preliminary study of the method applied to lower resolution images is also presented.