Research and development of a radiation hard beam profile monitor for use in the CERN North Area secondary beamlines

The CERN Beam Instrumentation group is currently investigating a radiation-hard beam profile monitor for the CERN North Area. Our main efforts are now focused on straw tubes, a type of wire chamber detector that offers the advantage of being vacuum-compatible and easily equipped with in/out motorisation. We have launched an extensive testing campaign across several CERN accelerators to demonstrate that straw detectors can cover the same dynamic range as traditional wire chambers, from individual particles up to intensities of around 10^11 particles per second, and to prove that they can perform reliably with beams of both protons and heavy ions.