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October 2022 - Pre-amplifiers for scintillation detectors

Sodium iodide scintillation detectors are widely used for single photon detection, both pulse counting and pulse height analysis. They are well-suited to count rates up to about 100 kHz. Higher count rates require faster scintillators such and lanthanum bromide and lanthanum chloride. Pyramid has developed compact and cost-effective DC-coupled pre-amplifiers for both of these applications. The CP15AF has gain range and filtering suited to sodium iodide, while the CP15AL is designed for use with lanthanum halide detectors which can handle rates in the MHz. Both models include gain and offset control, and can be connected directly to the C400 detector controller.

CP15

 


November 2021 - NMR calibration capability for Hall probes

Nuclear magnetic resonance magnetometers are the gold standard for magnetic field measurement. They exploit a precisely-known property of atmomic nuclei and the ability to measure frequency also with high precision and thus provide extraordinary accuracy. Pyramid has added a PT2026 magnetometer from world-leaders Metrolab SA (https://www.metrolab.com/) to provide a convenient in-house calibration capability of its range of precision Hall probes. The magnets and power supplies used for production calibration at Pyramid were not originally designed with the requirements of NMR in mind, but with valuable assistance from Metrolab and the supply of customised NMR probes, a robust calibration system has been created.

NMR

 


September 2020 - Pyramid Technical Consultants Europe moves to larger premises

The new offices in a historic building near the centre of Henfield will give us better opportunites to support our customers in Europe. The extra space allows us to improve our engineering development, customer support, service and calibration capability.

We now have the space and facilities to offer training on the the full range of Pyramid products. The office is only a minute's walk from the many attractions of downtown Henfield. We look forward to welcoming visitors when the world returns to normality.

PTCE_office

 


July 2019 - IC64-6: A high precision ionization chamber for high proton beam currents

Ionization chambers used in proton therapy become non-linear at high beam current density due to recombination losses.  The solution is to increase the ion drift velocity and reduce the time for ions to cross the interelectrode gap.  The new IC64-6 chamber has very small interelectrode gaps and high bias voltage capability.  The result is a device ideally suited to new developments in proton therapy such as pulsed beams and flash therapy.

Sixty-four 1 mm pitch strips in each orthogonal axis and an integral plane section with a 1 mm electrode gap provide excellent position and dose measurement even at high beam currents and small beam spot size.  Thin polyimide electrode foils with 300 angtrom gold patterning ensure minimum beam scattering.  The IC64-6 is the recommended measurement device for researchers in flash therapy.

IC64

 

 

Dec 2017 - New IC128 ionization chamber configurations

The IC128-25 position dose and position sensing transmission ionization chamber for proton therapy is now available in two configurations to suit different treament nozzle configurations.

The IC128-25LC includes orthogonal strip readout sections with 128 strips at 2 mm pitch and a dual gap low-capacitance integral plane section for total dose measurement.  Bias voltage loopback allows the readout electronics to confirm that the voltage is correctly delivered.  Built-in replaceable desiccant keeps the gas filling dry and dual environmental sensor boards measure the internal temperature, pressure and humidity.

The IC128-25LC-2I includes all the features of the IC128-25LC and adds a second, completely independent, dual gap integral plane section.  A single device therefore provides the required redundancy according to the light ion therapy standard IEC 60601-2-64.

IC128

 

Mar 2016 - I400 available with TRT connectors

The I400 four-channel electrometer combines sensitive current measurement with the ability to bias the signal measuring circuit up to 400 V relative to ground. This makes it suitable for reading out miniature ionization chambers. These chambers typically provide the signal on an electrode which must be a few hundred volts relative to ground to bias the chamber. This feature requires the use of triaxial signal connections to eliminate unwanted leakage currents in cables and connectors. Up to now the I400 has been supplied with 3-lug triaxial bayonet connectors. Customers may now request the widely-used TRT threaded triaxial connector. This allows direct connection of a wide range of proven dosimetry chambers.

TNC

 

Jan 2015 - 2D-sensing ionization chambers

Ionization chambers with pixel electrode patterns provide true two-dimensional beam profiles. Strip electrode chambers assume that the beam can be characterized by two orthogonal one-dimensional projections. However some beam behaviors such as inclined elliptical beams are not well-represented by the projections - a true two-dimensional imager provides more information.

Pyramid has introduced 2D imaging chambers for particle therapy isocenter diagnostic purposes (the PX-2) and for in-situ beam profile monitoring (the PX-3). The PX-2 is available in a telescope configuration that measures the position, shape, trajectory and divergence of a beam. The PX-3 provides one of the lowest possible water-equivalent thickness beam position monitors for the particle therapy market. Go to the Products page for more details.

Pixelated IC

 

June 2014 - C400 pulse counting detector controller supported by spec

spec from Certified Scientific Software (http://www.certif.com) is the most widely-used instrument control and data acquisition software for X-ray diffraction. The Pyramid C400 four-channel pulse-counting detector controller integrates wideband pulse discrimination, fast-scaling, high-voltage supplies, pre-amplifier power and several diagnostic features into a single unit. Pyramid has been delighted to work with Certified Scientific Software, with the result that the latest 6.02 release of spec now includes support for the C400 (spec C400 help notes).

The C400 is available to the synchrotron light source community through FMB-Oxford Ltd (http://www.fmb-oxford.com).

C400&spec

 

April 2014 - New ionization chambers
The IC128-25 and IC64-16 ionization chambers for particle therapy are joined by the IC16-5. This compact chamber is intended for use upstream of a beam scanning system, where it continuously monitors the beam current, shape and position. Use of laser-machined thin-film electrode technology ensures the smallest possible amount of beam energy loss and scattering. Like its larger stable-mates, the IC16-5 includes environmental sensors for atmospheric pressure compensation, desiccant cartridge for de-humidification and hermetic sealing to permit its use with flow through gas if required. It has small anode-cathode gaps to allow operation at high beam currents with minimal loss due to recombination.

IC family

 

March 2014 - H20 two-channel magnetic field measurement system now available
The launch of the H20 two-channel Hall probe system provides a compact, high performance magnetic field measurement system that is particularly suited to particle beamlines, especially two-axis magnetic scanners. The matching MFP-30 probe is thin but rigid, and has design features that make it well-suited to the measurement of DC and AC fields up to several kHz, and good resistance to background neutron and gamma radiation.

The state of the art Hall element has low inherent noise and temperature coefficient. The use of a high stability current source, on-board digitization and downsampling, temperature measurement at the probe tip and full temperature compensation gives excellent low noise performance and high stability.

H20

 

November 2013 - EPICS connectivity
EPICS (http://www.aps.anl.gov/epics/) is "a set of Open Source software tools, libraries and applications developed collaboratively and used worldwide to create distributed soft real-time control systems for scientific instruments such as a particle accelerators, telescopes and other large scientific experiments." Once data and controls for a device are available as process variables in the EPICS environment, then they can be accessed by a wide variety of client systems, including programs written in C++, C#, Java, Python, LabView™, Matlab™ and others.

Pyramid has released an EPICS connection for its products using the EPICS Channel Access Server, embedded in the Pyramid IG2 program. The IG2 service runs on any suitable host machine on the network to make all the defined devices and their process variables available to your client application, which can be running anywhere else on the network. Any Pyramid product that can communicate over Ethernet, either directly, or via a fiber optic loop controller, can be connected to EPICS this way.

The rich variety of applications in the EPICS community includes help for non-programmers too. Control System Studio (http://controlsystemstudio.github.io/) allows the rapid development of quite sophisticated user interfaces in very short time. As an example, the user interface for the F460 and M10 products shown below was created and debugged in the CSS BOY editor in less than one day.

 

F460 GUI

 

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July 2013 - ISO9001 Certification renewed

Pyramid Technical Consultants Europe maintains its certification under ISO9001:2008. The quality management systems of the US and European companies are now closely aligned, so you can be assured of the same high standards whether you deal with the US or European operations.

Watch this space for information about new magnetic field probe products!

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May 2013 - Ionization chambers for particle therapy

IC64-16IC128-25BPM16-38
Pyramid is shipping ionization chamber products to customers who are setting the pace in particle therapy. The new IC64-16 chamber has joined the IC128-25 and BPM16-38 in our product range. The IC64-16 and IC128-25 set new standards for accuracy and resolution, while producing very low beam scattering. The BPM16-38 together with the industry standard I3200 electrometer is a reliable and robust solution for beam transport line tuning.

Visit the products page here for more details.

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Feb 2013 - F460 fast quad current monitor

F460

Pyramid is shipping the new F460 current monitor. A member of the G2 range of devices, it includes four fast, parallel and independent current measurement channels with excellent accuracy and stability, integrated precision current sources for fully automated self-calibration, deep buffer memory for high rate acquisitions, analog voltage and TTL frequency monitor outputs and comprehensive triggering modes.

Communication is via Ethernet, serial/ASCII or fiber optics. High voltage output and servo controller options are available.

The F460 is available to the synchrotron light source community through FMB Oxford.

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