The silicon tracker of the beam test engineering model of the GLAST large-area telescope

The silicon tracker for the engineering model of the GLAST Large-Area Telescope (LAT) has at least two unique features: it employs self-triggering readout electronics, dissipating less than 200μW per channel and to date represents the largest surface of silicon microstrip detectors assembled in a tracker (2.7m²). It demonstrates the feasibility of employing this technology for satellite based experiments, in which low power consumption, large effective areas and high reliability are required. This note describes the construction of this silicon tracker, which was installed in a beam test of positrons, hadrons and tagged photons at SLAC in December 1999 and January 2000.