LNS-IF Home

Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (LNS) is one of the four national laboratories of INFN. Founded in 1976 it currently employs about 150 people (researchers, technicians, PhD and Undergraduate students) and represents an advanced development center for technology and instrumentation.

The research activity is mainly devoted to the study of structure and properties of atomic nuclei, in collaboration with researchers coming from several countries.

At LNS two particle accelerators are available: a 15 MV Tandem Van De Graaff that in the early '80s was used for the first experiments, and a K800 Superconducting Cyclotron in full operation since 1996.

The EXCYT facility for the production of exotic beams, based on the coupled operation of the two mentioned accelerators, is already running.

Research and development of new apparatuses and technologies are typically applied to different fields like biophysics, photonics, cultural heritage as well as recently developed irradiation facility for radiation hardness assurance of electronic components and parts for their use in space (LNS-IF).

A spin-off company, MAPRAD, in collaboration with LNS has settled up dosimetry systems to carry out irradiation tests with protons and heavy ions on parts and systems to study their susceptibility to the radiation according to ESCC and JEDEC standards. The irradation setup is operating in air with all advantages that this implies.

MAPRAD has responsibility to manage LNS-IF towards outer world.

The LNS-IF test site and the heavy ion dosimetry setup have been validated with an ESA audit on November 2009.

MAPRAD offers “turn-key” solutions from simulation of space environment, to realization of interface circuitry, executing irradiation tests, interpreting results and suggest mitigation alternatives.