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CAEN as technology provider for borders security

Nicole Filippi

CAEN as technology provider for borders security

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The University of Tartu and the start-up company GScan announced that they have just completed a laboratory prototype of a muon tomography scanner, suitable for customs and security control. Exploiting natural radiation, this innovative technology will allow to scan vehicles at borders, cargo, sea containers and even human people, avoiding the use of harmful X-rays. This new technology will probably find application in other fields as well, for example for scanning buildings and large industrial devices, but also in medicine.

A laboratory prototype of the new scanner is ready, but there are plans to build a full-scale prototype and move on to manufacturing the devices. GScan prototype is exploiting CAEN Spa SiPM readout systems (DT5550W and A1702) to readout glassy fibers and detect the muon tracks in space, in order to reconstruct the shape and recognise the chemical composition of the scanned objects.

CAEN is pleased to announce that its commitment as technology provider for these kind of applications is going to continue in the framework of the H2020 European project SilentBorder. The project is going to end in April 2025 when the first full-size prototype is planned to be tested under real conditions.

Germanium solutions for LEGEND-200 experiment

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Legend logo

The GERDA (GERmanium Detector Array) experiment, which started in the first decade of 2000 as a new 76Ge neutrinoless double beta decay experiment at LNGS, has finally completed his goals with incredible results. A new record has been published on 17 September on Physical Review Letters but now it’s time for LEGEND-200 (Large Enriched Germanium Experiment for Neutrinoless Decay) to proceed with important contributions in this area, defining new paths for the installation of 200kg of Germanium Detectors across the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory.

Because of the success of this experiment, in this first phase, called LEGEND-200 – which has been divided into three subprojects (GetDet, Minidex and Pen) – the same architecture of GERDA will be used to determinate unresolved properties on neutrino mass and, at the same time, the number of High Voltage Channel will be increased to 160 (LEGEND-200). In this context, CAEN S.p.A has previously provided N1471H NIM HV power supplies for 30 kg of Germanium Detectors (GERDA) and then delivered his A1560HDPE +6 KV/20 µA power supplies with SHV connectors hosted in CAEN Mainframes (SY4527 and SY5527), reaching 160 High Voltage channels.

Inside the GERDA Experiment
Inside the GERDA Experiment @ LNGS – © K. FREUND/University of Tübingen

One-minute CAEN Pills is our new Newsletter

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Our November newsletter is out! Check the web version here.

The One-minute CAEN Pills is our new newsletter format dedicated to products but also application examples of the latest CAEN solutions condensed into a few lines. Join our mailing list by registering on our website or sign up here with your email address only.

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ENTRANCE Project officially launched on 13 October 2020!

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Press release

The ENTRANCE project on EfficieNT Risk-bAsed iNspection of freight Crossing bordErs without disrupting business was officially launched on 13 October 2020!

As gatekeepers of EU borders, customs authorities have seen their mission to detect and seize maximum amounts of illicit goods on their way to enter the EU become increasingly challenging. New threats have emerged, ranging from counterfeit products and new psychoactive substances to sensitive dual-use technologies, and nuclear and radioactive materials. To enhance border customs staff’s capabilities and allow them to focus on detecting and inspecting high-risk shipments without hindering the circulation of legitimate trade, innovative technologies combined with reliable information sharing and collaboration mechanisms are needed.

It is this challenge that the 3-year EU funded “EfficieNT Risk-bAsed iNspection of freight Crossing bordErs without disrupting business”, i.e. the ENTRANCE project, launched on the 1st of October 2020, aims to address. It is concerned with developing, implementing and testing through field-trials a comprehensive user-based Toolbox for risk-based non-intrusive inspection of cross-border freight movements.

The ENTRANCE consortium is composed of 16 partners and is coordinated by the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA, France). It has received funding from the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 883424.

Contact: entrance-arttic@eurtd.com

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The intrinsically pervasive role of CAEN Multihit Digital TDC to HAWC tests speed of light

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Whenever engineering creates, manufactures and markets products and services for our- society, we realize that its practical utility is realized to the extent that efforts fall into the indispensable role of knowledge and tools of electronics. The result that well expresses the “intrinsically pervasive” role of this discipline, and how it has managed to respond to the needs of our type of society, is represented by the important goal reached by CAEN S.p.A in having contributed and supplied the Multihit Digital TDC (VX1190) supporting High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) TeV Gamma-Ray Observatory as part of the Ultra-high energy gamma ray project who took place last March 2020 in Mexico. The skymaps used an array of 300 water Cherenkov detectors who observed large portions of the sky simultaneously. The use of TDC by CAEN S.p.A in the context of multi-wavelengths studies, has contributed to increase the scientific potential of these instruments which began with the extensive air showers technique.

Read the full article here: https://www.lanl.gov/discover/news-release-archive/2020/March/0330-hawc.php

About Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is managed by Triad, a public service oriented, national security science organization equally owned by its three founding members: Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle), the Texas A&M University System(TAMUS), and the Regents of the University of California (UC) for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

COVID-19 Flights restrictions: cargo flights fully operational

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With the current evolving Covid-19 virus situation in Europe many passenger flights to and from Italy have been reduced or prohibited. We at CAEN want to clarify that the above-mentioned flights are of a commercial nature and do not apply to the movement of goods. All cargo flights in and out of Italy are fully operational.

In strict compliance with all the instruction provided by the government agencies, we at CAEN have further strengthened all the security measures, applying rigorously all the requirements of the health institutions, for the benefit of our customers and our colleagues.

Our highest priority is to ensure the continuity of the service we offer, responding as usual to every specific need.