In brief

Metrolab licenses Fast Digital Integrator from the CERN
Fast Digital Integrator (FDI): this is the name of the all-new integrator developed by the CERN, in collaboration with the University of Sannio (Italy), to meet the unprecedented needs of the LHC measurement program (see also our article in this newsletter). Particularly suited for measuring and mapping rapidly changing fields, the FDI provides dramatic improvements in all performance parameters of the current standard for high-precision fluxmeters – Metrolab's PDI5025. Good news: this cutting edge instrument will be commercially available soon! We are very pleased to announce that Metrolab has licensed the FDI design, and will offer it as a Metrolab product starting around mid-2009. Performance and pricing information will be available in January.

PT2026 update
Another chapter has been written in the long saga of our next-generation NMR teslameter, the PT2026. In short, we will unfortunately not be able to ship this year. It is also likely that some of the technical specifications will change. For those who want to know more about this challenging project, we give further technical details in a whole article in this newsletter. We shall have to await the results of more tests on a prototype, as described in the accompanying article, but one thing is already certain: the PT2026 will be released, and it will be worth waiting for it. Keep your eye on this column for the next installment…

Research collaboration with the EPFL
To explore new ways to measure and map magnetic fields, Metrolab relies heavily on collaboration with external researchers. Two recent research projects, carried out by students directed by Dr. Giovanni Boero of the Swiss Polytechnic University in Lausanne (EPFL), are remarkable examples of this type of collaboration. Gabriella Sinicco explored the flowing-liquid method for measuring a very wide range of field strengths with a single NMR probe (see previous Brief). A theoretical model now allows us to understand the most important characteristics, and practical experiments with a prototype identified the key issues still to be solved. As for Lionel Tombez, he developed a wide-range pulsed NMR system based on the PT2026. His work encompassed the design of a probe as well as the development of a complete analysis system. We thank Giovanni and his students for their excellent work, and are delighted to be able to take this research forward into the product stage.