A novel read-out architecture has been developed for the Micromegas detector. The anode element is made of a resistive layer on a ceramic substrate. The detector part is entirely separated from the read-out element. Without significant loss, signals
are transmitted by capacitive coupling to the read-out pads. The detector provides high gas gain, good energy resolution and the resistive layer assures spark protection to the electronics. This assembly could be combined with modern pixel array electronic ASICs. This readout organization is free on how the pixels are designed, arranged and connected. We present first results taken with a MediPix read-out chip.
A new type of radiation detector based on a spherical geometry is presented. The detector consists of a large spherical gas volume with a central electrode forming a radial electric field. Charges deposited in the conversion volume drift to the centr
al sensor where they are amplified and collected. We introduce a small spherical sensor located at the center acting as a proportional amplification structure. It allows high gas gains to be reached and operates in a wide range of gas pressures. Signal development and the absolute amplitude of the response are consistent with predictions. Sub-keV energy threshold with good energy resolution is achieved. This new concept has been proven to operate in a simple and robust way and allows reading large volumes with a single read-out channel. The detector performance presently achieved is already close to fulfill the demands of many challenging projects from low energy neutrino physics to dark matter detection with applications in neutron, alpha and gamma spectroscopy.
