Triple-GEM detector technology was recently selected by CMS for a part of the upgrade of its forward muon detector system as GEM detectors provide a stable operation in the high radiation environment expected during the future High-Luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). In a first step, GEM chambers (detectors) will be installed in the innermost muon endcap station in the pseudo-rapidity region, mainly to control level-1 muon trigger rates after the second LHC Long Shutdown. These new chambers will add redundancy to the muon system in the-region where the background rates are high, and the bending of the muon trajectories due to the CMS magnetic field is small. A novel construction technique for such chambers has been developed in such a way where foils are mounted onto a single stack and then uniformly stretched mechanically, avoiding the use of spacers and glue inside the active gas volume. We describe the layout, the stretching mechanism and the overall assembly technique of such GEM chambers.

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The alignment system for the muon spectrometer of the CMS detector comprises three independent subsystems of optical and analog position sensors. It aligns muon chambers with respect to each other and to the central silicon tracker. System commissioning at full magnetic field began in 2008 during an extended cosmic ray run. The system succeeded in tracking muon detector movements of up to 18 mm and rotations of several milliradians under magnetic forces. Depending on coordinate and subsystem, the system achieved chamber alignment precisions of 140-350 µm and 30-200 µrad, close to the precision requirements of the experiment. Systematic errors on absolute positions are estimated to be 340-590 µm based on comparisons with independent photogrammetry measurements.

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