1. 1 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS Production of THGEM at ELTOS S.p.A. Company profile Production procedures Small size THGEM prototypes Large area THGEM photon detector The production of the first set of 600 x 600 mm 2 THGEM prototypes Fulvio Tessarotto

2. 2 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS Company profile (seen from a client) For the production of THGEMs by industry Rui de Oliveira suggested us to contact an Italian pcb producer: the company ELTOS S.p.A. Founded in 1980 by Dr. Riccardo Pinamonti, in Arezzo (Tuscany), a place with centuries long tradition in gold handcraft almost 100 workers; turnover > 12 M€ / year; page: www.eltos.it producing of all kinds of pcb’s, mainly for foreign customers many labs and research institutes among clients (CERN LHCb award) typically working on special products and small orders treating more than 30 different codes / day using many high-tech machines and newly developed techniques

3. 3 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS Production of small size THGEM prototypes At the beginning of 2008 we ordered to the ELTOS Company 13 groups of THGEM prototypes with 30 x 30 mm 2 of active area. POSALUX ULTRASPEED 6000LZ 6-spindle-roboter 180,000 turns/min, Ø down to 0.15 mm Nominal CNC drilling tolerance: +- 10 μm common prototype parameters: thickness: 0.4 mm, Cu thickness: 35 μm, holes diameter: 0.4 mm, pitch: 0.8 mm; material: R-1566 Panasonic (halogen free, anti CAF) 10 samples per type

4. 4 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS 13 series (different rim or production) Nam eDrilling 0.4 mmRim 1 (μm)Rim 2 (μm)rim productionmaterial M1Y00NOPanasonic M2Y250DrillingPanasonic M3Y500DrillingPanasonic M4Y1000DrillingPanasonic M5Y50 Two Sides DrillingPanasonic RNO Panasonic RINO Isola C1Y10 EtchingPanasonic C2Y25 EtchingPanasonic C3Y50 EtchingPanasonic C3IY50 EtchingIsola C4Y100 EtchingPanasonic C5Y10 Laser + EtchingPanasonic C6Y50 Laser + EtchingPanasonic C7Y10 Global EtchingPanasonic

5. 5 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS Documentation and packaging

6. 6 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS Raw material Image transfer and etching Drilling Stripping Resist covering Original “Weizmann” THGEM production process

7. 7 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS Raw material Drilling Sn stripping “10 μm” rim Galvanic Sn ELTOS “small rim” production process similar to CERN one, presented by Rui de Oliveira (CERN RD51 Worshop, Sep. 10-11, 2007)

8. 8 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS example of “small rim” (25μm) production

9. 9 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS Raw material Photo-resist “100 μm” etching Image transfer Drilling ELTOS “large rim” production process

10. 10 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS example of “large rim” etching production

11. 11 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS Raw material Drilling Global etching (no protection) ELTOS “global etching” production process proposed by Dr. Riccrdo Pinamonti and used for some of the prototypes

12. 12 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS example of 10 μm “global etching” production

13. 13 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS pure drilling production process

14. 14 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS double drilling production process

15. 15 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS Vmax (= discharge limit in pure N 2 ) For the characterization of the small prototypes, listen to Elena Rocco and Jaroslav Polak talks tomorrow different production techniques  different behaviors

16. 16 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS The second series of small size pieces NAMERIM (mm)THICKNESS (mm)Ø (mm)PITCH (mm) M2.1 0.40.30.8 M2.2 0.40.20.8 M2.3 0.40.31.2 M2.4 0.60.40.8 M2.5 0.60.30.8 M2.6 0.60.41 M2.7 0.60.31 M2.10 0.80.40.8 M2.11 0.80.30.8 M2.12 0.80.41 M2.13 0.80.31 C2.1 0.0020.60.31 C2.2 0.0050.60.31 C2.3 0.0100.60.31

17. 17 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS th. 0.8, diam. 0.4, no rim

18. 18 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS th. 0.6, diam. 0.3, “5 μm global etching rim” The Cu layer thickness is reduced from 35 μm to 30 μm

19. 19 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS Toward larger areas: Toward larger areas: Prototipes: Small, active area 30 x 30 mm 2 Medium, active area 100 x 100 mm 2 Large, active area 576 x 576 mm 2 Next step: many engineering problems to be faced  build a first tentative prototype box for addressing one by one the problems; start with a large THGEM with “standard” parameters 0.6, 0.4, 0.8

20. 20 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS 100 x 100 mm 2 THGEM (CERN production) thickness: 0.2 mm diameter: 0.2 mm pitch: 0.5 mm rim: ~ 10 μm

21. 21 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS

22. 22 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS

23. 23 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS 0.2 mm 0.5 mm

24. 24 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS

25. 25 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS

26. 26 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS

27. 27 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS 600 mm THGEMs Stesalite frames Al frame Anode pads Structure of the large area prototype detector Al frame

28. 28 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS The aluminium frames and the stesalite frames have been produced to allow assembling one prototype detector. The anode consists in a multi-layer pcb of 3.6 mm thickness, 600 x 600 mm 2, segmented in 2304 pads of 1.2 x 1.2 cm 2 in the internal side, and 288 connectors for direct mounting of electronic boards on the external side. Two such pcb’s have been produced for us by ELTOS S.p.A. The uniformity of the pad surface is guaranteed by using a recently developed technology: “Cu viafill” used for filling blind microvias

29. 29 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS Cu viafill technology

30. 30 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS anode pcb

31. 31 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS anode pcb pads

32. 32 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS We ordered 3 large THGEMs with 576 x 576 mm2 active area. The geometrical parameters are: thickness = 0.6 mm, hole diameter = 0.4 mm, pitch = 0.8 mm, rim = 5 μm. They have been produced by ELTOS S.p.A. using single spindle machine, and single piece drilling (for small size prototypes stacking of two pcb’s during drilling was used). There are about 600,000 holes per piece. The drilling took about 30 h / piece, but pieces were produced in parallel. Tools are replaced after 2000 holes. The reference price for drilling is 1€ for 1000 holes. The other production operations (~5μm rim, Ni-Au, …) add a similar amount to the final price. Production of 600 x 600 mm 2 THGEMS

33. 33 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS Pluritec Multistation Evolution at ELTOS 180,000 turns/min 20,000 holes/hour Storage: 840 tools Controlled diam., depth and run-out Working area: 630 x 765 mm 2

34. 34 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS 600 x 600 mm2 THGEM protoypes ~600,000 holes/piece (very large gerber file) Ø: 0.4, p.: 0.8, th.: 0.6 mm rim: 5 μm (micro-etching) Ni-Au coating

35. 35 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS THGEM

36. 36 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS 600 x 600 mm 2 THGEMs

37. 37 Fulvio TESSAROTTO THGEM discussion, 02/11/2009 THGEM production at ELTOS Conclusions The ELTOS S.p.A. Company in Italy has recently gained significant experience in the production of THGEM prototypes of many different types. In order to optimize the procedures for THGEM production it is very important to know the production details and to correlate them to the performances of the prototypes. This work has started with a large set of 30 x 30 mm 2 THGEMS which have been delivered and tested. The first set of 600 x 600 mm 2 THGEMs has been produced and delivered last week. Industrial production of THGEMs may be close to become real.