The cooperation between Elettra – Sincrotrone Trieste and Instrumentation Technologies for the future Elettra 2.0 machine
A partnership agreement was recently signed between the Italian-based research center Elettra – Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.P.A. and the Slovenian high-tech company Instrumentation Technologies d.o.o. The two parties are combining their expertise and know-how in research, development and production of electron beam position measurement electronics, with the goal of installing an innovative measurement system consisting of 200 Beam Position Monitors (BPMs) in the new Elettra 2.0. storage ring.
Elettra – Sincrotrone Trieste
The Italian-based Elettra – Sincrotrone Trieste is a multidisciplinary international research center established in 1993. The center is specialized in generating high-quality synchrotron and free-electron laser light, which are applied in materials and life sciences. Elettra’s mission is to promote cultural, social, and economic growth through research, which is carried out in physics, chemistry, biology, life and environmental sciences, medicine, cultural heritage, and other significant fields. The technology transfer activities and the use of the facilities for industrial applications are managed by the Elettra Industrial Liaison Office.
Instrumentation Technologies
The Slovenian high-tech company Instrumentation Technologies is a globally renowned supplier of beam position stabilization systems known by the brand name “Libera”. Nine out of ten synchrotron light sources around the world are equipped with Libera instruments measuring a variety of beam parameters, and assuring the stability of the machine for their users. Instrumentation Technologies’ goal is to optimize and improve the performance of particle accelerators since 1998.
Elettra 2.0
The Elettra third-generation storage ring has been operating since 1993 and it has been continuously upgraded in order to maintain its global competitiveness.
Elettra developments in accelerator technologies during the last twenty years have led to many important results featuring new magnet design, innovative vacuum technology and revolutionary beam monitoring and orbit feedback systems. These new capabilities and technologies, which were not available when the Elettra storage ring was conceived, today provide a solid basis for the realization of the Elettra 2.0 new machine.
The upgrade of the storage ring will result in a substantial increase of the brilliance and coherence fraction, which represents a major step forward in synchrotron research and will complement and integrate the research potential of the operating FERMI Free Electron Laser.
The innovative BPMs joint project
The planned five years partnership between Elettra and Instrumentation Technologies is divided into five phases and aims to achieve three major goals:
· The development of a new BPM readout electronics system based on the recent developments done at Elettra, including an innovative pilot-tone stabilization mechanism that will assure better long-term stability for the BPM system of the new Elettra 2.0 low emittance ring.
· The validation of the prototypes and the productions and commissioning of 200 of such BPM readout systems.
· The industrial exploitation of the innovative product, which already has been evaluated by different international research centers.
Conclusion
The project is based on a new concept of Innovation partnership allowing contracting authorities to combine the product development phase and the procurement process into a single whole with the purpose to foster the collaboration and strengthen the liaison between science and industry. The successful start of collaboration between two excellencies in the field of high technology and research, Elettra and Instrumentation Technologies, already has caught attention of other research institutes, which perceive it as a valuable case study and are eager to build on its experience.
