  Thick GEM-like (THGEM) electrodes are robust, high gain gaseous electron
multipliers, economically-manufactured by standard drilling and etching of thin
printed circuit board or other materials. Their operation and structure are
similar to that of standard GEMs but with 5 to 20-fold expanded dimensions. Due
to the larger hole dimensions they provide up to 10^5 and 10^7 charge
multiplication, in a single- and in two-electrode cascade, respectively. The
signal rise time is of a few ns and the counting-rate capability approaches 10
MHz/mm^2 at 10^4 gains. Sub-mm localization precision was demonstrated with a
simple, delay-line based 2D readout scheme. These multipliers may be produced
in a variety of shapes and sizes and can operate in many gases. They may
replace the standard GEMs in many applications requiring very large area,
robust, flat, thin detectors, with good timing and counting-rate properties and
modest localization. The properties of these multipliers are presented in short
and possible applications are discussed.
