Redesign and Assembly of Improved PMT Bases for Fermilab E1039/SpinQuest

SpinQuest, Experiment 1039 at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is trying to understand the spin structure of the nucleon sea using the Main Injector 120 GeV beam and a polarized NH3 and ND3 targets. This is done via the Drell-Yan process of quark-antiquark annihilation, which produces two muons. SeaQuest/E906, the predecessor to SpinQuest had thermal management issues with the PMT bases for the first two hodoscope stations. Daughter cards on these PMT bases would overheat due to being enclosed with no cooling possible. These front hodoscopes constitute a critical component of the SpinQuest trigger. New daughter cards were designed to improve heat dispersion by using a 4-layer board with two ground planes and a gold plated solder pad connected to these planes. This refurbishment of the PMT bases and physical aspects of the new boards will be discussed, as well as the successful significant reduction of component operating temperatures. SpinQuest should begin engineering runs in June 2019 with the expectation to start taking data in the fall of 2019.