CSC Endcap Muon Chambers: design and test results

Presented are the main design features and performance results of the cathode strip chambers (CSCs) for the CMS Endcap Muon System. The six-plane structure of these chambers yields a spatial resolution of about 80 /spl mu/m, essentially uniform and independent of the strip width (up to 16 mm, which is unusually wide for the cathode-to-anode wire distance of 5 mm). In addition, the net spatial resolution of about one-tenth of the strip width at the hardware trigger level (300ns) is obtained using a simple network of comparators. The time resolution achieved at the trigger level is /spl sim/4ns (RMS) that allows unambiguous tagging of bunch crossing occurring every 25 ns. Aging tests, including those obtained with a recirculating gas system, showed only minor aging effects. The aging studies were performed with large-scale chambers; 700 m of wire were irradiated for a dose up to 0.4 C/cm of the total accumulated charge.