Design, fabrication and evaluation of an extremely light, small-size multiwire proportional chamber system

The authors introduce an extremely light, small-size multiwire proportional chamber (MWPC) system. Including its wire frames, the average thickness of the complete detector system consisting of eight MWPCs is 5% of a radiation length of 1.68 g/cm/sup 2/. Its total weight is <1.2 kg. In order to obtain such a lightweight detector system, conventional methods of MWPC design and fabrication could not be used. New materials had to be introduced as well. The design, fabrication technique, and important properties of this MWPC system are discussed. With a spatial resolution of 150 mu m and a particle detection efficiency of 98%, this low-mass MWPC system maintains the operational properties of conventional models while reducing its mass considerably. The detector system has been used in the Fermilab E665 experiment where it operated successfully within the muon beam region at intensities of several times 10/sup 6/ mu /sup +//s.<
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