The ATLAS SemiConductor tracker - overview and status

The ATLAS SemiConductor Tracker (SCT) in one of the three tracking detectors making up the ATLAS inner detector. The trackers 4088 silicon detector modules covers an area of over 60 m(2), distributed over four barrel cylinders and 18 end-cap disks. The back-to-back mounted silicon sensors provide space points for track reconstruction. The sensors are read out via front-end ASIC and binary data from selected events are read out via optical links. A large number of prototypes have been built and measured with test pulses, in beam tests and in a small-scale system tests. The radiation hardness of the components has been verified by a series of irradiations with subsequent thorough measurement programs. The SCT is now close to its final design and series production of detector modules is about to start. The final assembly and Quality Assurance of the SCT detector modules will be done in production at Universities, organizing themselves in Production Clusters. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.