Silicon detector tests with the RAL Microplex readout chip

The design, construction and operation of a five-layer silicon microstrip detector is described. The detector consisted of silicon microstrip wafers bonded to the RAL Microplex MX2 readout chip. The readout chip provided amplification with double-correlated sampling for each microstrip channel and multiplexing of 128 signals. The circuitry controlling the chip, the readout electronics, the stage holding the microstrip wafers and their alignment, are also described. A single-layer resolution of 10±0.6 μm was obtained in a test beam. This work is part of a program to design a microvertex detector for UA1 at the CERN panti p collider. (orig.)