Building a large-area GEM-based readout chamber for the upgrade of the ALICE TPC

A prototype of an ALICE TPC Outer Read-Out Chamber (OROC) was equipped with twelve large-size GEM foils as amplification stage to demonstrate the feasibility of replacing the current Multi Wire Proportional Chambers with the new technology. With a total area of ∼0.76 m2 it is the largest GEM-based detector built to date. The GEM OROC was installed within a test field cage and commissioned with radioactive sources.