This gives a short description of progress on the BRAHMS construction since the last update posted on the WEB pages in September. This update is of March 17, 1997

• Magnets
• Area Layout
• TPC electronics
• TPC chamber
  

Magnets.

• The fabrication order for the D5 coils was awarded to ELMA engineering. The coils for D1 are in production at Pacific Electric. The first D1 coil is expected to be inspected by the BNL engineer in late march at pacific Electric. The D1 and D5 steel design has been completed. The design for the D3 coils and steel is in progress. Detailed magnetic field calculation are being made to determine the fringe fields, both in regard to the detectors, but also in regard to residual field on the RHIC beam. These calculations are also used to determine the thickness of the magnet shields (field clamps).

Area Layout.

• The shield wall design for the 2 O'clock area is proceeding. This is essential because the installation of RHIC utilities will begin during March and April of this year. This does rescrict where BRAHMS can place the Electronics hut and the access to the area. At the same time the placement of cable feed-thoughs are being determined.
  
  
• The utility room at the 2 O'clock area will be available to BRAHMS. The present plan calls for using this room for power supplies and water systems. The beam instrumentation group will occupy portion of the adjacent room.

TPC electronics.

• The 18 FEE cards to be procured initially from STAR have been populated in Munich and are presently at LBNL for testing . After they are tested they will be shipped to BNL. The STAR readout board is still under development and is currently being debugged. It is expected that the first board will be delivered to us at the same time as the FEE cards. This is now planned to take place towards the end of April.

• The development of a simple trigger-clock VME module for the readout control is continuing. The layout has been completed and the board been manufactured. It is currently being populated at BNL. A description is available under the DAQ and trigger pages in the private BRAHMS area.

TPC Detectors

• The detailled design of TPC2 in the mid-rapidity spectrometer, T1 and T2 in the forward spectrometer is in progress at Strasbourg. The space constraints , in particular for T1 and T2 are rather severe and special attention is paid to the structures holding the pad- and wire-planes to minimize the distance from the active area to the sidwalls of the gascontainer. The design is expected to be complete by mid April at which time construction will start.
  
  
• The drift velocity monitor chamber which was designed by R. Debbe and E. Baker has been completed and tested. It works very well and detailed results are available.