The silicon microstrip tracker for CMS

Summary This paper describes the silicon microstrip tracker of the CMS experiment at the future LHC. The silicon tracker consists of a barrel part with 5 layers and two endcaps with 10 disks each. About 6500 modules will have to be built, each one carrying two daisy-chained silicon sensors and their front-end electronics. The modules have been designed to be as simple and robust as possible. Radiation damage in the silicon sensors is minimized by cooling the whole system down to -10°C. Safe operation after heavy irradiation will be possible due to the high-voltage capability of the sensors. We expect the sensors to have a signal-to-noise ratio of 10 at the end of 10years of LHC running, which still gives an efficiency of almost 100%.