LHCb was formally approved in 1998. The diagram shows the LHCb experiment in its underground area, surrounding the LHC beam pipe.
The preliminary CARIOCA chip was tested at CERN in September 2000. It was designed by the CERN-UFRJ group for use in the readout of the muon chambers.
The first 1200 modules of LHCb's ECAL (left) arrived at CERN from Russia in September 2002, together with the first two of 52 HCAL modules (right).
Early in 2003 a team in Novosibirsk reported successful production of high transparency aerogel for the LHCb RICH. (Courtesy INFN/LHCb Milano-Bicocca group.)
The first beryllium section of LHCb's beam vacuum chamber was installed at the end of August 2006. Here, a technician inserts the wakefield suppressor.
The last modules for the VELO arrived at CERN in early March 2007, from Liverpool University, where this subdetector was designed and constructed.
• June 2007 p6.
In 2007 commissioning the RICH detectors was in full swing in the LHC cavern, with RICH2 completely installed.
Particle tracks seen in the VELO and triggered by the calorimeter during synchronization tests at Point 8 in the LHC on 22 August 2008. About 25% of the VELO was switched on at the time.