Large area Micromegas chambers with embedded front-end electronics for hadron calorimetry

Micromegas (Micro-mesh gaseous structure) is an attractive technology for applications in particle physics experiments (TPC, calorimeters, muon systems, etc.). The most important results of an extensive R&D program aiming to develop a new generation of a fine-grained hadron calorimeter with low power consumption digital readout using Micromegas chambers as an active element are presented. The emphasis is put on an innovative engineering solutions of the chamber construction, development of low noise ASIC and its calibration, and simulation of the physics performance of a complete calorimeter. In 2010, the first large scale prototype of Micromegas chamber with almost 8000 readout channels has been built and tested with high energy particle beams at CERN. The fundamental results, such as detection efficiency, hit multiplicity, gain stability, response uniformity and effect of power pulsing of detector front-end electronics are reported. Eventually, the prospective towards the construction of a technological prototype of a 4.5 lambda deep digital calorimeter for a future linear collider will be also presented