Design and construction of the CDF central outer tracker

A new tracking chamber, the Central Outer Tracker (COT), has been built as part of the upgrade of the CDF detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. The COT is a cylindrical open-cell drift chamber, segmented into 96 layers. High voltage and readout electronics are mounted on the chamber endplates, providing timing and charge deposition information. The COT is designed to operate in the high-luminosity environment of the upgraded Tevatron. With the addition of the Main Injector and the Recycler Ring, the Tevatron will be capable of provinding luminosity as high as 2×10 ³² cm ^-2 s ^-1 at a bunch spacing of 132 ns. We discuss the design of the detector, as well as the assembly. Construction of the COT was completed in Spring 2000, and the first data will be taken during a commissioning run in late Summer 2000.