Quality control on the silicon sensors of the GLAST tracker

The GLAST observatory is an astroparticle mission that will study gamma-rays emissions from a wide range of cosmological sources in the 20 MeV−⩾300 GeV energy band. The silicon tracker is the heart of the photon detection system and uses state-of-the-art detectors developed for particle physics. Its construction is a major technological challenge which requires effective quality control over the whole production, in order to meet to requirements of reliability and system redundancy typical of space applications.