Delay wire chambers

The Delay Wire Chambers are drift chambers that are read out through a delay line. The spatial resolution is about 200 microns, the sensitive area 10 x 10 cm². Due to the readout scheme, they are rate limited to about 10⁴ Hz. The signals are not only read by the SL/EA computers, but a copy of the direct signal is available to the user, who can read it through his own TDC's.

There are three types of Delay Wire Chambers:

• X/Y profile chambers provide measures of horizontal and vertical impact points of individual particles. Normally these are installed in the experimental areas, very close to the experimental apparatus.
• Spectrometer chambers have only a single plane readout. Camac readout is available through the EA computers and a copy of the signal goes to the experiments or tests for readout by private TDC's.
• VME-based Spectrometer chambers: as above, but the EA readout is based on VME electronics. This system is new for 1997 and will be introduced for the X5 and X7 spectrometers.