Diamond Light Source

Deep within the Diamond Light Source synchrotron ring, Ampegon RF amplifiers provide the power source for this £260m advanced scientific research facility.

Ampegon designs and delivers RF amplifier systems and high voltage regulated power supplies for large-scale particle accelerators. Some of the most fascinating and challenging applications are found at synchrotron light sources, such as the Diamond Light Source in England.

These make use of exceptionally intense, tightly focused incoherent light at X-ray, ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths. This light can penetrate deep inside matter, allowing scientists to investigate the world around us at an atomic or molecular scale. Among a wide range of valuable applications, synchrotrons have been highly effective in the effort to develop novel medicines and drugs, for example new improved vaccines for deadly diseases that affect people around the world.

This special light is produced using high energy particle accelerators called synchrotrons, within which electrons are accelerated to near light speed in resonant cavities, using energy from Ampegon’s special RF amplifiers. These systems are specially optimized for high flexibility, reliability, accurate and efficient performance and long lifetime.

The Diamond Light Source (DLS) is the UK’s national synchrotron facility, and the first 3rd generation light source in the country. In 2003, DLS contracted Ampegon to design and supply a series of RF amplifiers and high voltage power supplies. Following delivery, Diamond became fully operational in January 2007, on schedule and on budget. The massive construction project – with a 45,000 sq. m floor sapve – required over two million man hours (or over 1,100 man years) of construction effort, and used over 2100 tons of steel.

Located in South Oxfordshire, DLS’s storage ring (the main part of the accelerator system) has a circumference of 561m (over a third of a mile). The facility represents the largest UK scientific investment in 40 years, and will ultimately host up to 40 beamlines, each with a different experimental capability. With this investment, DLS will ensure that researchers can access cutting-edge analytical techniques for at least the next 30 years.