The CMS Silicon Strip Tracker: Experience in integration and commissioning

The CMS Silicon Strip Tracker (SST) is now in its final installation phase. All the various subsections are now at CERN and are either undergoing final assembly or being tested with cosmic rays. The CMS schedule foresees to lower the whole SST by summer 2007 so that it can be cabled and be ready in time for the first beams provided by the LHC. The fruitful completion of this project (ongoing now for more than 10 years) will be thanks to an enormous effort by hundreds of people from many institutions in the design and construction phase of the detector. Yet it is now that the biggest effort is needed in bringing all pieces together and ensuring that they work to specification, in other words, integration and commissioning. This paper will focus on some of the points that have come up during integration of the sub-assemblies and some of the issues that have had to be addressed to ensure that the SST performs according to specifications.