DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SLD VERTEX DETECTOR - A 307 MPIXEL TRACKING SYSTEM

This paper describes the design, construction, and initial operation o f SLD's upgraded vertex detector which comprises 96 two-dimensional ch arge-coupled devices (CCDs) with a total of 307 Mpixel. Each pixel fun ctions as an independent particle detecting element, providing space p oint measurements of charged particle tracks with a typical precision of 4 mu m in each co-ordinate. The CCDs are arranged in three concentr ic cylinders just outside the beam-pipe which surrounds the e(+)e(-) c ollision point of the SLAG Linear Collider (SLC). The detector is a po werful tool for distinguishing displaced vertex tracks, produced by de cay inflight of heavy flavour hadrons or tau leptons, from tracks prod uced at the primary event vertex. The requirements for this detector i nclude a very low mass structure (to minimize multiple scattering) bot h for mechanical support and to provide signal paths for the CCDs; ope ration at love temperature with a high degree of mechanical. stability : and high speed CCD readout, signal processing, and data sparsificati on. The lessons learned in achieving these goals should be useful for the construction of large arrays of CCDs or active pixel devices in th e future in a number of areas of science and technology.