Prototyping the read-out chain of the CBM Microvertex Detector

The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) Experiment at the future FAIR (Darmstadt/Germany) will study the phase diagram of hadronic matter in the regime of highest net-baryon densities. The fixed target experiment will explore the nuclear fireballs created in violent heavy ion reactions with a rich number of probes. To reconstruct the decay topologies of open-charm particles as well as to track low-momentum particles, an ultra-light and precise Microvertex Detector (MVD) is required. The necessary performance in terms of spatial resolution, material budget and rate capability will be reached by equipping the MVD with highly granular, radiation-hard CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (CPS) developped at IPHC Strasbourg, which are operated in the target vacuum of the experiment. This contribution introduces the concept of the MVD and puts a focus on the latest results obtained from the R&D of the electronics and read-out chain of the device. Moreover, we briefly introduce the PRESTO project, which realises a prototype of a full size quadrant of an MVD detector station.