At the Saphir Millennium Institute laboratory, located on the Casona de Las Condes campus of the Universidad Andrés Bello, a team of technicians and engineers work to develop cutting-edge technology for various experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, among other research projects worldwide. This is technology for particle physics that could have revolutionary applications, such as medical imaging.
By Jorge Román
There is an insidious question that particle physics researchers are constantly asked: what is particle physics for?
The question is tricky because the simplest answer could be that it serves to understand the mechanisms of matter, at the subatomic level and beyond matter. Which, for many people, can be understood as "it is useless". But the same interpretation could be given with respect to music, literature or astronomy, and yet it is clear that music and literature are associated with industries that generate large revenues and employ many people (record producers, publishers, printers...) and that astronomy has turned Chile into a country that is a leader in foreign investment in astronomical observatories. leader in foreign investment in astronomical observatories -thanks to the clear skies of the Atacama Desert.
So, what developments are derived from particle physics research? Well, many. There are essential medical applicationsthe birth of the World Wide Webthe World Wide Web, touch touch screens and trackballs trackballsThe Saphir Millenium Institute has a team of technicians and engineers working in the fields of data processing, engineering and electronics that are directly linked to research in particle physics. So much so that the Saphir Millennium Institute collaborates in technological developments with its host universities and, in addition, has a team of technicians and engineers working on the development of fundamental technology for research work in particle physics.
Saphir Millennium Institute engineers and technicians develop electronic systems that are not available anywhere else. These components are then used in particle physics research and must be integrated into experiments located in various laboratories around the world. The most important of these is the Large Hadron Collider (with its respective detectors).
Saphir Millennium Institute engineers and technicians develop electronic systems that are not available anywhere else. These components are then used in particle physics research and must be integrated into experiments located in various laboratories around the world. The most important of these is the Large Hadron Collider (with its respective detectors).
The projects in which this team is involved are varied: neutron shields for particle detection experiments, development of high-speed signal acquisition systems for the Atlas experiment, radiation testing (to determine how electronic cards would perform under the radiation they would receive at the Large Hadron Collider), electronic circuits for particle detectors and component failure detection, among many others.
Matías Henríquez, one of the engineers working on projects at the Saphir Millennium Institute, says he is amazed by all that electronics can do: "Something so small, so compressed, can do many things and, at the same time, help us in our lives [...]. Within the area of particle physics that we develop, the same principles of electronics are applied to medical applications, in spectrometry, detection, counting photons... So, the field and the applications that can be made with electronics is super vast".
In March, a meeting was held with the team of technicians and engineers who collaborate with the Saphir Millennium Institute: this team works not only in Chile, but also at CERN in Geneva.
In March, a meeting was held with the team of technicians and engineers who collaborate with the Saphir Millennium Institute: this team works not only in Chile, but also at CERN in Geneva.
The development of electronic systems for particle physics experiments involves a number of challenges. It is not only because most of the time the team must design and create circuits, shields and detectors that do not yet exist (i.e., they work at the cutting edge of technological innovation): it is also because these components must be compatible with technology that is already in operation, both at the Large Hadron Collider and at other experiments around the world. And the technology with which they must be compatible may be very fragile or several decades old.
Matias Liz is a mechanical engineer and works as a designer for Saphir Millennium Institute projects. Liz has to evaluate what a researcher needs, determine how it can be done, what components would be needed and how the project can be executed: it is a job that can take many months, precisely because he has to create very specialized components that no one has invented yet. But this, rather than being a problem, for him is something challenging and positive: "I specialize in that, in an area that not many people are going to know about. [...] That makes me feel that my work has weight, it gives me a very enriching responsibility," says Liz.
The technical and design challenges that a technological team dedicated to particle physics must face is a unique formative instance that is creating new specialists in cutting-edge electronics. And this, eventually, can be the seed of a technological industry for Chile. As Carlos Flores, electrical technician of the Saphir Millennium Institute projects explains, "particle physics is probably one of the most [advanced] things in science. So, the most revolutionary discoveries could be found there." "How cool to be part of that, [...] I think it could help us a lot in the development of technologies, in training people who can produce changes here in Chile", concludes Flores.
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