Defined by the Project Management Board, the FAZIA project has been organized in four phases :
Protoptype R&D (Phase 1) : this period covers years 2006-2007. During this stage, we perform studies in order to define a typical telescope cell for the future FAZIA multidetector; we will test nTD silicon detectors, double-sided silicon-strip detectors, direct versus reverse mounting, prototype preamps, etc... Beam time is requested during this period, to perform a benchmark of several prototypes, aiming at identifying and retaining the best solutions. By the end of 2008, a pre-project (prototype array) is released and submitted for approval to the funding agencies.
Prototype Array R&D (Phase 2) : this period starts in 2008 for 3 years. This phase is devoted to build and test a prototype array consisting of 8-16 telescope cells arranged in a specific geometry which fulfills the technical needs in terms of granularity and angular resolution. It allows to trace the eventual mechanical problems, electronic cross-talks, etc...
Demonstrator (Phase 3) : this period is foreseen at the horizon 2011-2012. At that time, we aim to build a small version (for example for a limited but sizeable solid angle domain, such as Pi or 2Pi) of the FAZIA detector, grouping together hundreds of telescope cells. This demonstrator will be developped and tested along available facilities delivering radioactive beams such as SPIRAL/SPIRAL-2 in France, National Laboratory of Legnaro in Italy.
Full 4Pi array (Phase 4) : this period is planned around 2012-2013. Taking into account the experience accumulated so far with the demonstrator, we will proceed to the building of the full FAZIA detector, which will include all the specifications, especially the high angular coverage, associated to a very high granularity, by coupling several thousands of elementary detection cells.