The CLAS12 Micromegas Vertex Tracker

The Micromegas Vertex Tracker was designed to improve upon the tracking capabilities of the baseline design of the CLAS12 spectrometer in Hall B at Jefferson Laboratory. A Barrel Micromegas Tracker made with six concentric cylinders, each made of three 120 degrees-sector tiles, surrounds the Silicon Vertex Tracker, and a Forward Micromegas Tracker composed of 6 disks is placed 30 cm downstream of the liquid-hydrogen target. Both trackers sit in a 5 T solenoid magnetic field. All Micromegas elements are based on resistive technology to withstand luminosities up to 10(35) cm(-2) s(-1), as well as on bulk technology to enforce gain uniformity and mechanical robustness. Due to the high magnetic field, dedicated electronics have been designed and displaced similar to 2 m away from the detectors. The electronics readout is based on the DREAM ASICs that allow sustained operation up to 20 kHz trigger rate at the maximum luminosity.