Instrumentation Detectors and Advanced Instrumentation
The Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has many key areas of technology that have been developed over many years in response to the demands of the science programmes for national and international large scale science facilities and space science programmes.
In particular, expertise in bespoke microelectronics design, detector technology, systems engineering, precision design and clean assembly have been key to the organisation’s success.
The instrumentation and detector capabilities within STFC are often developed for very exacting applications in terms of the compact size of instruments or the precision of assembly, data acquisition and speed; they also need to be developed to meet the demands of operating in extreme environments (for example, in terms temperature, pressure and radiation). Consequently the technologies and products that have been developed by STFC will often meet the most stringent requirements of specific industry sectors (such as aerospace, defence, automotive and healthcare).
In many cases the design and building of an instrument will require technologies across a wide range of disciplines in addition to the fundamental simulation of the underpinning physics. This ranges from the development of sophisticated software control systems and data acquisition systems and micro and nano-engineering, through to detailed precision mechanical design on a large scale, integrated microelectronic solutions, clean precision assembly and metrology, together with software code development, both at a core and human interface level.
These capabilities exist in-house across the STFC organisation and therefore prototype developments can be managed more easily with STFC as a sole, or part, development partner.
Where expertise does not exist in STFC (and also to supplement areas of existing expertise) STFC has developed a network of academic and industrial partners that can bring specific expertise to problem solving in instrumentation development.