Abstract
The Birmingham Irradiation Facility was developed in 2013 at the University of Birmingham using the Medical Physics MC40 cyclotron. It can achieve High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) fluences of 1015 (1 MeV neutron equivalent (neq)) cm−2 in 80 s with proton beam currents of 1 μA and so can evaluate effectively the performance and durability of detector technologies and new components to be used for the HL-LHC. Irradiations of silicon sensors and passive materials can be carried out in a temperature controlled cold box which moves continuously through the homogenous beamspot. This movement is provided by a pre-configured XY-axis Cartesian robot scanning system. In 2014 the cooling system and cold box were upgraded from a recirculating glycol chiller system to a liquid nitrogen evaporative system. The new cooling system achieves a stable temperature of −50 °C in 30 min and aims to maintain sub-0 °C temperatures on the sensors during irradiations. This paper reviews the design, development, commissioning and performance of the new cooling system.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 80-84 |
| Journal | Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research. Section A. Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors |
| Volume | 796 |
| Early online date | 10 Feb 2015 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Oct 2015 |
Keywords
- Cyclotron
- Irradiation
- Silicon sensors
- Scanning system
- Robot
- Cooling