Analog converters used in Large Hadron Collider

Hans Rykaczewski, resource manager at Cern, said: 'The converters we use need to be radiation-hard and reliable because they must function properly for decades in a high-radiation environment.

'The collisions created by the LHC emit energy that can be measured and analysed once it is converted to a digital data stream.

'Analog Devices' converters have the speed and dynamic range we need to measure the energy captured by one of the 64,000-lead tungstate crystals.

'These crystals measure the energy of photons, electrons and positrons.' Within the LHC, two beams of subatomic particles called 'hadrons' - either protons or lead ions - will travel in opposite directions inside the circular accelerator, gaining energy with every lap.

Physicists will use the LHC to collide the two beams head-on at very high energy.

Teams of physicists from around the world will analyse the particles created in the collisions using special detectors.

Cern selected Analog Devices' AD9042 high-speed, low-power, 12-bit ADC (analogue-to-digital converter) for use in its detectors.

Data converters are the key components that translate real-world phenomena, such as light, sound, temperature, motion and pressure into electrical signals used in an array of electronic equipment.