The DELPHI Microvertex detector

Abstract The DELPHI Microvertex detector, which has been in operation since the start of the 1990 LEP run, consists of three layers of silicon microstrip detectors at average radii of 6.3, 9.0 and 11.0 cm. The 73728 readout strips, oriented along the beam, have a total active area of 0.42 m 2 . The strip pitch is 25 μm and every other strip is read out by low power charge amplifiers, giving a signal to noise ratio of 15:1 for minimum ionizing particles. On-line zero suppression results in an average data size of 4 kbyte for Z 0 events. After a mechanical survey and an alignment with tracks, the impact parameter uncertainty as determined from hadronic Z 0 decays is well described by ( 69 p t ) 2 + 24 2 μm , with p t in GeV/ c . For the 45 GeV/ c tracks from Z 0 → μ − decays we find an uncertainty of 21 μm for the impact parameter, which corresponds to a precision of 8 μm per point. The stability during the run is monitored using light spots and capacitive probes. An analysis of tracks through sector overlaps provides an additional check of the stability. The same analysis also results in a value of 6 μm for the intrinsic precision of the detector.