FTM-general meeting

Europe/Rome

Present:

UGent: Michael, Christos
CERN: Rui + Marcello, Federica & Jeremie (in loco)
Pavia: Ilaria, Davide
Bari: Piet, Antonello, Marcello, Federica, Jeremie
Kuwait: Yasser

- Overview of Activities in various labs (see slides)

- Important News:

- Christos will hand in thesis by december and likely move to private industry. New PhD student will continue work of Christos at UGent

- Production of New DLC foils is slowed down. Activities at USTC are only retaking slowly. Rui will contact Yi Zhou to understand delays in delivery of DLC foils.

- Marcello will have a student at CERN for 3 months.

- (!!! New) 3y Temporal Researcher position (funded by Puglia Region) will be opened on TOF-PET with gaseous detectors. In the original research proposal is written that this should be developed with the FTM.  We have one "internal candidate" that is right now at University College London (UCL) that will apply.

 

- Future activities:

- Pavia --> prototype needs new readout board that allows signal extraction. Ilaria believes foils are good, so should be reused. Will ask Rui to produce also Cu amplification foils, such that setup in Pavia can be verified as "good" and they can reproduce results obtained in Ghent. Pavia Prototype (resistive) will have 4 layers with 1mm gas each. Pavia prototype (conductive) will be 1 layer with 4mm gas (putting 4 x 1mm spacer). Pavia will study transparency of multi-layer structure. Suggestion to test Pavia prototype with laser setup in Bari --> would need to add a Quartz window in the octagonal external frame (1mm gas openings in internal frame allow for laser to enter). This is 2nd order priority w.r.t. above.

- Gent --> confirmation of research program previously agreed: new R/O board, to verify that signals can be also seen at much lower gas amplification. Production of 3 sets of resistive foils to investigate dependence of Max Gain & Signal height on resistivity of amplification foils: 2x100MOhm; 2x50MOhm; 2x20MOhm. Production of 2 Conductive amplification foils: one with normal cone and one with inverted cone. Will perform gas studies: first candidate is the LHCb Triple-GEM gas mixture: Ar:CO2:CF4 45:40:15. Gent studies basic cell performance (max gain etc). New PhD student in Gent will also continue Simulation studies (in collaboration/concurrence with Kuwait).

- CERN --> would like to have a "test-bed" setup for the fast characterization of the foils before sending them to Gent/Pavia. Should have a single-pad layout. This could be obtained by using the old R/O board of Pavia/Gent and producing an isolation disk to be put on top of the readout strips and a single-signal-pad disk to be connected properly to a LEMO connector outside the gas volume. Marcello / Jeremie should verify setup to be used (availability Xray + availability of N1471H)

- Bari --> would need new foils for small-FTM prototype. New foils should fix HV isolation problem + improve planarity of detector. Next year will be concentrated on preparing the small FTM for Test Beam (necessary for INFN project Milestones) and on the preparation of the MCP-PMT for time reference measurement.

- Kuwait --> will start simulating the exact geometry of the Pavia/Gent detectors. Exact cone size, inverted cone, etc. will need to start with remaking the electric field maps with Ansys.

 

- Funding:

- Some funds (Marcello, Piet) are remaining at CERN, but we are quickly running out of money.
- Michael said that Gent has small R&D budget and can cover for the expenses of the Gent Prototype.
- Total cost for Gent Prototype is 6800CHF:

                                1/ Build a new R/O board following Marcello’s advice                                                  1800 CHF

                                2/ Build 6 new amplification foils ( 2 x 100M , 2x 20M , 2x 50M)                                3600 CHF

                                3/ build 2 copper amplification foils with normal cone and inverted cone.              1400 CHF

- Funding calls for 2021 are closed. We should get together in the beginning of 2021 to prepare a funding proposal in Belgium for 2022.
- Project Piet in INFN ends Dec 2021. Also here at beginning of 2021 we should prepare for 2022+
- We should consider Marie-Curie fellowships in order for young Post-Docs to remain on the project after their PhD.
- EU funding should come at a later stage, after successful first tests and pointing towards development of a (large) prototype for a specific application.

 

- Future meetings:

- We will have a new FTM-general meeting by mid-September to discuss the changes in the readout board and to sign this off such that we can ask Rui to start the production (6weeks). This board should then be ready by end of October.

- We will doodle mid-September to find a time slot that suits all to have monthly "FTM-general" meetings to update each other on the status.

Meeting closed at 18:00.

There are minutes attached to this event. Show them.
    • 15:00 15:30
      Introduction 30m
      Speakers: Marcello Maggi (BA), Piet Omer J Verwilligen (BA)
    • 15:30 15:50
      Update from Bari Lab (15') + urgent questions (5') 20m
      Speaker: Antonello Pellecchia
    • 15:50 16:10
      Simulation Update from Kuwait (15') + urgent questions (5') 20m
      Speaker: Yasser Maghrbi (American University of the Middle-East (AUM))
    • 16:10 16:30
      Update from Ugent Lab (15') + urgent questions (5') 20m
      Speaker: Christos Roskas (Ghent University)
    • 16:30 16:50
      Update from Pavia Lab (15') + urgent questions (5') 20m
      Speaker: Ilaria Vai (PV)
    • 16:50 17:15
      Present: discussion on present results & understanding 25m
      Speaker: all
    • 17:15 17:45
      Future: discussion Scientific Program & Funding 30m
      Speaker: all