Novel gas-based detection techniques

This year we celebrate the 100th birthday of gaseous detectors: Hans Geiger operated the first gas-filled counter in Manchester in 1908. The thin wires, essential for obtaining gas amplification, have been replaced by Micro Pattern Gas Detectors (MPGDs): Micromegas (1995) and GEM (1996). In the GridPix detector, each of the grid holes of a MPGD is equipped with its own electronic readout channel in the form of an active pixel in suitable pixel CMOS chips. By means of MEMS technology, the grid has been integrated with the chip, forming a monolithic readout device for gas volumes. By applying a protection layer made of hydrogenated amorphous silicon, the chips can be made spark proof. New protection layers have been made of silicon nitride. The use of gas as detection material for trackers is compared to Si, and the issue of chamber aging is addressed. New developments are set out: the development of Micro Channel Plates, integrated on pixel chips, the development of electron emission foil, and the realization of TimePix-2: a general-purpose pixel chip with time and amplitude measurement, per pixel, of charge signals.