  The key component of the future PANDA experiment at FAIR is a fixed-target
detector for collisions of antiprotons with a proton target up to a beam
momentum of 15 GeV/c and is designed to address a large number of open
questions in the hadron physics sector. In order to guarantee an excellent PID
for charged hadrons in the polar angle range between $5^\circ$ and $22^\circ$,
a new type of Cherenkov detector called Endcap Disc DIRC (EDD) has been
developed for the forward endcap of the PANDA target spectrometer. The desired
separation power of at least 3 s.d. for the separation of $\pi^\pm$ and $K^\pm$
up to particle momenta of 4 GeV/c was determined with simulation studies and
validated during various testbeam campaigns at CERN and DESY.
