Concept of the Mechanical Structure and the Cooling Strategy of the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS)

We will present the concept and the design of the mechanical structure of the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS). The ITS will involve in total 6 layers of Si detector covering a total surface of 6.6m2. From the inside there will be 2 layers each of Si-Pixel, Si-Drift and Si-Strip detectors. The mechanical construction, made of a transparent, light-weight high modulus carbon fibre structure will be discussed. A cooling scheme to evacuate some 6000W produced by the front end electronics of the ITS detectors will be presented.