Speaker
Description
The Surface Resistive Plate Counter (sRPC) is a novel RPC based on surface resistivity electrodes, a completely different concept with respect to traditional RPCs that use electrodes characterized by volume resistivity.
The electrodes of the sRPC exploit the well-established industrial Diamond-Like-Carbon (DLC) sputtering technology on thin (50µm) polyimide foils, already introduced in the manufacturing of the resistive MPGDs such as µ-RWELL and MicroMegas. The DLC foil is then glued on a 2mm thick float-glass, characterized by excellent planarity. In the baseline layout the DLC is connected to the HV by a single dot connection outside the active area. With this layout we measured an efficiency of 95-97% and a time resolution of ~1ns.
In addition, exploiting the concept of the high density current evacuation scheme, first introduced for the µ-RWELL, we realized prototypes with high-rate electrodes by screen printing a conductive grid onto the DLC film. With such a high-rate layout, 7GΩ/square DLC resistivity and 10mm grounding-pitch, we measured a rate capability of about 1kHz/cm2 with X-ray, corresponding to a m.i.p. flux of about 3kHz/cm2. By lowering the DLC resistivity and optimizing the current evacuation scheme, a rate capability of the order of 10kHz/cm2 seems to be achievable.
A DLC magnetron sputtering machine, co-funded by CERN and INFN, has been recently acquired and installed at the CERN EP-DT-Micro-Pattern-Technology Workshop. With this facility it will be possible to realize large area (up to 1.8x0.6 m2) DLC electrodes with a resistivity spanning over several orders of magnitude (0.01÷10 GΩ/square).
This innovative technology could open the way towards cost-effective high-performance muon devices for applications in large HEP experiments for the future generation of high luminosity colliders. The possibility of exploiting the sRPC technology for thermal neutron detection, by replacing DLC with B4C sputtered electrodes, is under investigation for a possible use in Radiation Portal Monitor for homeland security purpose.
| Topic | Detectors and new facilities |
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