Successful removal of the CMS Barrel Pixel Detector
On 9 September 2026, PSI-UZH team successfully extracted the Phase-1 Barrel Pixel Detector from the CMS Detector at CERN. The operation went smoothly and everything went according to plan.
The detector had been in operation for almost ten years and recorded more than 470 fb-1 of data. Its removal marks the end of an important era of LHC physics and represents a significant milestone in the work preparing for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC).
Further development work on the pixel detector for the HL-LHC is currently underway at PSI and UZH. The original pixel detector will soon be on display in an exhibition at the PSI Forum, giving visitors the opportunity to see a piece of LHC history up close.