Silicon drift detectors as tracking devices

Silicon drift detectors provide unambiguous two-dimensional position inform ation for charged particle detection in a single detector layer. Like most other semi-conductor technologies, Silicon drift detectors are presently us ed in vertexing detectors. By taking into account, the drastic reduction in channel count compared to other silicon-based devices this specific techno logy is also well suited for large coverage tracking detectors. The first l arger area Silicon Drift Tracker (6.3 cm x 6.3 cm) was developed as the inn er tracking detector (SVT) of the STAR experiment at the RHIC collider. Adv antages and limitations of this detector will be discussed. Recent results of detector performance based on an application in a heavy ion fixed target experiment at the BNL-AGS (E896) are presented. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.