The irradiation facility at the CERN proton synchrotron, set up to irradiat
e full-size prototypes of silicon microstrip detectors for the ATLAS semico
nductor tracker, is described and measurements of the detector currents dur
ing irradiation are reported, The detector dark currents can be described b
y bulk radiation damage models demonstrating the radiation hardness of the
detector design and allowing the current damage factor alpha and the accept
or introduction term beta to be determined. Results from testbeam studies o
f a module with an irradiated detector and binary readout in a magnetic fie
ld and with the beam incident over a range of angles are reported. The hit
efficiency and spatial resolution satisfy the requirements for the SCT prov
ided the detector is operated at the full charge collection voltage. The Lo
rentz angle was not found to be affected by the irradiation. (C) 2000 Elsev
ier Science B.V. All rights reserved.