A study of GEM foils produced at Tech-Etch

Tech-Etch is a manufacturing company that produces numerous types of flexible circuits and precision photo- etched parts for industrial use. They have developed the capability for producing GEM foils which can be used in a variety of research or commercial applications. We have studied a number of GEM foils produced at Tech-Etch and compared their properties and performance to GEM foils produced at CERN and by other manufacturers. Results will be reported on their gain characteristics, gain stability and uniformity, and rate dependence compared to other foils, and on their performance as actual tracking detectors in a test beam environment.