An aging study of industrially produced micropatterned gas detectors

Micropatterned gas detectors like GEMs and MlCROMEGAS are being considered for time projection chambers (TPC) for linear collider experiments. These devices are made mainly of Kapton insulators and thick copper layers. Because in the micropatterned gas detectors a dense plasma of avalanche electrons and ions are created in a small volume, aging due to polymerization is a concern. A shot-term aging study on a single GEM foil produced by 3M using reel-to-reel flex circuit technology is reported.