  Further progress in building high-granular large-scale systems based on
Scintillation Tiles with MRS APD light readout (START) became possible thanks
to the creation of an improved version of MRS APD. The cost of the system may
now be significantly reduced by using inexpensive extruded scintillator. More
than 160 START samples were assembled based on this design modification and
proved to possess 100% MIP detection efficiency and the intrinsic noise rate of
less than 0.08 Hz. Long-term stability of START characteristics was confirmed
after 3.5 months of operation.
