The LHC experiments are able register 40 million collisions per second, continuously – a feat that was barely more than a dream when thoughts turned to building detectors for the big collider some 30 years ago. The start of the LAA project at CERN in 1986 – proposed by physicist Antonino Zichichi and financed by the Italian government – led directly to the build-up of know-how at CERN, with the recruitment of young and creative electronic engineers. This allowed the development of microelectronics at CERN, which together with the design of silicon-strip and pixel detectors would become essential ingredients for the superb performance of the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider today.

Read the full article: "Microelectronics at CERN" – CERN Courier