Minutes-3-28-2008

FDC Weekly Meeting

Date: March 28, 2008

Participants: None (virtual meeting)

Next Meeting: April 3, 2008 @ 1:30 p.m.

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Full-Scale Prototype

 - 4 of the 6 sets of wire frame circuit boards arrived (the others
   are coming) and they looked absolutely beautiful.  The boards were
   passed on to Greg Arnold to complete the Phase 1 stuffing.  This
   work is underway already and should be completed early next week.
   One of the stuffed STBs was delivered to us with the surface-mount
   resistors included.
 - Roger completed the PR for the cathode daughter boards and
   ground boards and it was signed.  We expect delivery in about
   2 weeks.
 - Some known delivery time lines: 50-pin connectors for preamp
   daughter boards by July, ERNI connectors by the end of May, HV
   capacitors by May 9.  Nothing known about delivery time lines for
   the G10 and Rohacell.
 - After some internal discussion, we have decided not to pursue the
   CCT connection for our cathode manufacture as this company is soon
   to move into bankruptcy.  We are instead moving to identify additional
   board houses that can handle our requirements.  This may cost us
   time in the short run, but is the most sensible move for the longer
   term.

Test Frame Wire Winding

 - DSC is working with Steve Christo to prepare a wire specification
   document for the tungsten and CuBe wires leading up to procurement.
   Steve is preparing a document for the Hall B chambers and we will
   most likely adopt this document for Hall D.
 - DSC talked with the IUCF folks and essentially all of the
   machinery for wire winding, tension measurements, and position
   measurements is functional.  IUCF still has to construct a support
   frame for the measurements and this will happen early next week.
   They should have a full set of the relevant drawings.  They believe
   that they will want Brian to go out the week of April 6.  This will
   be finalized next week.

Composite Cathode Updates

 - No update on progress on completing the composite cathode sandwich
   prototype.

Grounding Issues

 - Fernando will supply an overall grounding specification document 
   very soon.  He is working on it.

Gas Volume Definition

 - No progress on the gas volume definition studies as Dave Meekins
   has been working on other projects.  He should have some more
   time to continue next week.
 - Bill is concerned that these modeling tests will give rise to
   ambiguous results that will not really answer our questions
   given the difficulty that Dave is having with computing anything
   for our particular geometry.  Bill is starting to consider other
   (mechanical) options to help address the questions.

STB/HVTB Discussion

 - QA/stuffing/cleaning document will be prepared by Kim after the
   Phase 1 stuffing is done and she can go over the procedures with
   Greg.
 - Bill has gotten all of Kim's board drawings and is incorporating
   them into the IDEAS model.

Cathode Board Discussion

 - Roger needs to prepare a document for QA/stuffing/cleaning for the
   cathode boards and a similar document for the cathode daughter
   boards and ground boards.
 - Roger has gotten a small test cathode board set up that Brian
   prepared and will complete some tests of soldering the rigid
   flex cable in the next day or two.  He will have a report at the
   next FDC meeting.

Small-Scale Prototype

 - Bill Gunning completed the connector soldering for our new
   small-scale prototype cathodes (1-mil Kapton, 2 microns Cu,
   +/-75 deg strips).  Simon installed them into the prototype
   and has gotten the DAQ setup and running using the SIP
   preamps and the charge-integrating ADCs.  He is currently
   performing studies with a 90/10 Ar/CO2 gas mixture.  His
   initial report is that the signals from the cathodes look
   good on the scope.  He will need to collect data over the
   weekend to study the resolutions.

Cathode Flatness Measurements

 - Bill has been in contact with a place called Acuity Laser and
   they offered to send us a demo version of their system for free.
   Brian will produce a small-scale cathode board for testing with
   the measurement system.  We will mount the measurement system on
   the JLab CMM.  The folks at Acuity Laser did not believe that
   their laser triangulation system would have any issues at all
   working with our cathode surfaces.

Tracking/PID Review

 - The tracking/PID review was held yesterday with the closeout
   today.  By all metrics, this review was a complete success for
   us and the committee's report will be fully supportive of our
   designs.

Work List

 - The FDC short-term work list has been posted on the FDC web site
   (see http://www.jlab.org/Hall-D/detector/fdc/).  This is continually
   being updated and DSC welcomes any feedback or comments from the group.

Minutes prepared by Daniel. Send any comments or corrections along.