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CERN exchanges knowledge with the Swiss non-profit CSEM

The CERN Knowledge Transfer group is hosting a one-day meeting to promote knowledge-exchange with the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology

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CERN exchanges knowledge with the Swiss non-profit CSEM

False-colour cross-section of a silicon micro-channel device for particle detectors made by CSEM in collaboration with CERN (Image: CSEM)

Today CERN is hosting a knowledge-exchange opportunity with Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) an independent, private, non-profit Swiss company for applied research and innovation. The company specializies in micro- and nanotechnology, system-engineering microelectronics and communications technologies.

The CERN Knowledge Transfer group organized the one-day event to bring together CERN experts and CSEM technology managers to raise awareness of reciprocal know-how and to identify potential R&D collaborations.

“CERN’s experts in material sciences, computational fluid-dynamics simulation, detectors and electronics will present our technical challenges and expertise,” says Giovanni Anelli, head of the Knowledge Transfer group. “We will investigate how CSEM’s experts and technical instrumentation could match our knowledge and needs for the design and production of state-of-the art technologies for particle physics experiments as well as for other fields.”

In January 2013 CERN and CSEM signed a collaboration agreement for the development of silicon microstructures for enhanced integration of cooling devices in particle-tracking detectors.

“Efficient thermal management is extremely important to prevent aging or premature deterioration of silicon tracking detectors,” says engineer Paolo Petagna of the CERN Physics department. “Together with the minimization of mass, one of the challenges in detector technology is the difference in thermal expansion coefficients between their various components,” says Petagna. “The synergy between CERN and CSEM brings together CERN’s micro-channel cooling technology - that permits better temperature control - and CSEM’s expertise in the area of microsystems technology, including micro-fabrication, assembly and encapsulation.”

This collaboration will result in the production of ultra-thin devices that can be positioned as close as possible to the LHC beam line while minimising the disruption to the particles produced by collisions.

Read more: "The value of collaboration" - CERN engineer Paolo Petagna on bridging the gap between science and society