The H1 silicon vertex detector

Abstract The design, construction and performance of the H1 silicon vertex detector is described. It consists of two cylindrical layers of double-sided, double-metal silicon sensors read out by a custom designed analog pipeline chip. The analog signals are transmitted by optical fibres to a custom-designed ADC board and are reduced on PowerPC processors. Details of the design and construction are given and performance figures from the first data-taking periods are presented.