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The upcoming FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany, will produce intense high energy beams of exotic nuclei, which will be used to explore the properties of new regions of the chart of nuclides of key importance for both nuclear structure and nuclear astrophysics. In the EXL project, heavy ion beams are first cooled in the New Experimental Storage Ring (NESR) and then used to induce reactions on windowless thin Hydrogen, Deuterium and Helium gas targets in the ring. High luminosities can be achieved because of the recirculation of the beam with a frequency of about 1 MHz. The EXL system will be ideal for high resolution reaction studies at low momentum transfer. The design of the detector system considered is universal in the sense that it should allow the use of a large variety of nuclear reactions, addressing numerous physics questions. The detector system provides the capability of fully exclusive kinematical measurements, with target recoil detectors, fast ejectile forward detectors and an in-ring heavy-ion spectrometer. The physics case and detector design considerations for EXL along with tests experiments performed at KVI and GSI, paving the way to the full EXL detection system, are presented in this contribution.

Suborbital rockets that fly focal-plane cameras that need to be cooled to optimize their operation face a series of challenges around their operation. These include maintaining a high-quality vacuum and the cooling of the detectors in a controlled way. These challenges are further heightened by the requirement that no current flows through the payload systems while the rocket motors are being armed. This paper discusses the novel pumping and cooling system implemented for the 2022 launch of the Rockets for Extended-source X-ray Spectroscopy (tREXS), including the use of a magnetic umbilical to connect the vacuum foreline to the rocket skin.

To cope with the unprecedented high radiation level at the luminosity up-grade of the LHC (sLHC), novel tracking detectors are investigated. Among these, 3D silicon detectors constitute a promising option. By etching columnar electrodes of both doping types into the sensor, the distance for depletion and charge collection is decoupled from the sensor thickness. Thus, two of the main effects of radiation damage in silicon (increasing depletion voltage and trapping) can be significantly reduced. Since the process technology of 3D is very challenging, modified designs, such as 3D-DDTC detectors (double-sided, double type column), are under investigation. Preliminary results of test beam measurements performed at the CERN SPS with 3D-DDTC strip detectors produced by FBK-IRST in Trento, Italy, are presented.

The RHIC polarized proton collider employs polarimeters in each of the blue and yellow rings that utilize the analyzing power in p-carbon elastic scattering in the Coulomb Nuclear Interference (CNI) region to measure the absolute beam polarization. These are calibrated by the polarized hydrogen jet target that measures the absolute beam polarization in pp elastic scattering in the CNI region. This paper describes the status and performance of these polarimeters in the FY09 run which included both a 250 GeV/c and 100 GeV/c physics data taking period. We will describe some of the difficulties encountered and the efforts underway to improve the performance in better energy resolution, rate handling capability, and reduced systematic uncertainties.

The upgrades for the ATLAS Pixel Detector will be staged in preparation for high luminosity LHC. The first upgrade for the Pixel Detector will be the construction of a new pixel layer which will be installed during the first shutdown of the LHC machine, foreseen in 2013-14. The new detector, called the Insertable B-layer (IBL), will be installed between the existing Pixel Detector and a new, smaller radius beam-pipe. The IBL will require the development of several new technologies to cope with increased radiation and pixel occupancy and also to improve the physics performance through reduction of the pixel size and a more stringent material budget. Two different and promising silicon sensor technologies, planar n-in-n and 3D, are currently under investigation for the IBL. An overview of the IBL project, of the module design and the qualification for these sensor technologies with particular emphasis on irradiation and beam tests is given.

The Semiconductor Tracker (SCT) is a silicon strip detector and one of the key precision tracking devices in the Inner Detector of the ATLAS experiment at CERN LHC. The completed SCT has been installed inside the ATLAS experimental cavern since 2007 and has been operational since then. Calibration data has been taken regularly and analyzed to determine the performance of the system. In this paper the current status of the SCT is reviewed, including results from data-taking periods in 2010 and 2011. We report on the operation of the detector including overviews on services, connectivity and observed problems. The main emphasis is given to the performance of the SCT with the LHC in collision mode and to the performance of individual electronic components.

The LHCb Vertex Locator (VELO) is the detector responsible for the detection of heavy hadrons through their flight distance. The performance of the VELO during its three years of operation during the LHC physics runs is presented, focussing on the latest studies. The primary results presented are the first observation of type-inversion at the LHC; a comparison of n-type and p-type silicon in operation; and the observation of a radiation-induced charge loss effect due to the presence of a second metal layer.

The upgrade of the LHCb experiment, planned for 2018, will transform the entire readout to a trigger-less system operating at 40 MHz. The upgraded VELO must be light weight, radiation hard, and compatible with LHC vacuum requirements. The material budget will be optimised with the use of evaporative CO₂ coolant circulating in micro-channels within a thin silicon substrate. The current status of the VELO upgrade will be described together with a presentation of recent test results, and a discussion of the R&D on alternative solutions which has been carried out within the LHCb VELO upgrade programme.