Development of Micromegas detectors with resistive anode pads

A novel type of resistive Micromegas combining a Bulk mesh and a resistive pad board is presented. Readout pads are covered by a thin insulating layer with a top resistive coating segmented into resistive pads. Readout and resistive pads are electrically connected by means of planar resistors embedded in the insulator, enabling fast clearance of the avalanche charge from the resistive surface. The maximum gas gain achieved by these resistive detectors is similar to that of non-resistive Micromegas. A possible saturation of the gain for large energy deposits in the gas was investigated by means of $^{55}$Fe quanta and electromagnetic showers in the 30–200 GeV energy range, but no significant deviation from a proportional response was found. With a suitable choice of the resistance, these detectors demonstrate negligible gain drop and no sparking up to X-ray fluxes of ∼ 1 MHz / mm$^2$ which constitutes a major improvement over non-resistive Micromegas. Spark suppression was also verified in a hadron beam for prototypes with a pad resistance as low as 40 k Ω or above. Passive protections of the front-end electronics against sparks (diodes on a printed circuit board) are therefore not required for these resistive detectors.