Detector hardware

The design of straw tube detector modules developed for the PANDA Forward Tracker is
presented. One module consists of 32 straws with 10mm diameter, arranged in two staggered
layers, and has a very low material budget of only 8:8 x10^-4 X0. The overpressure of the working gas
mixture of 1 bar makes the module self-supporting and enables the use of lightweight and compact
support frames. Detection planes in the Forward Tracker consist of modules mounted closely,
without gaps, next to each other on a support frame. A module can be mounted and dismounted
from the frame without the need to remove the neighborig modules, enabling fast repairs. Technical
details of the detector design and the assembly procedure of the straw tubes and the straw modules
as well as results of performed tests of the modules are given.

Invited talk at DIRC2017: Workshop on fast Cherenkov detectors, Castle Rauischholzhausen, Germany, Aug 7-9, 2017.

The first major assembly stage of the barrel part of the electromagnetic calorimeter of the PANDA experiment at the future FAIR facility by assembling one single barrel slice segment will be presented. The calorimeter is composed of two endcaps and a barrel covering the major part of the solid angle consisting of more than 11.300 tapered PbWO4 crystals. Each scintillator module is readout via two large area avalanche photo diodes connected to custom made ASIC-preamplifier. The construction of the first segment comprises a full length slice beam holding in total 18 module blocks. Each block consists of a matrix of 4x10 crystals. The assembly procedure of single detector modules, module blocks and the overall slice segment, respectively will be discussed. Test results of single components and fully assembled detector modules will be discussed and compared with earlier prototype in-beam and lab tests. Supported by BMBF, GSI and HIC for FAIR.

In this thesis the prototype system for processing of the signals generated in the
straw tube trackers of the PANDA spectrometer is proposed, built and evaluated. The
full processing chain of signal consists of programmable readout electronics, configware
and analysis methods. The proposed readout is based on the front end electronics,
equipped with the configurable PASTTRECv1 ASIC (PANDA STT REadout Chip
version 1 Application Specific Integrated Circuit) and the readout board (TRBv3 - Trigger
Readout Board version 3) acting as data concentrator and time measurement device.
The readout system performs full chain of data processing consisting of analog
shaping, digital conversion and data transmission. A dedicated analysis methods have
been developed to extract track position and a particle energy deposit in the detectors.
Dedicated tests of the system by means of the cosmic rays and proton beams have
been performed. The results prove that the spatial resolution better than 150 m can
be achieved. Furthermore, particle identification based on time over threshold method
can be successfully applied in the momentum region below 800 MeV/c. The last but
not least goal was to show that it is possible to realize complete readout system based
on the concept presented in this thesis which is capable of cope with the hit rates of the
PANDA spectrometer.