[en] This work gives an overview of present and near future technological opportunities for the analog first conditioning and subsequent processing of sensor signal. The interactions between beam sensor capability, their signals characteristics and the system requirements are analyzed from different approaches as: full analog continuous, sampled time discrete, full digital time and amplitude discrete. Special attention will be given to the impact of measurement methods and new devices in circuits and instrumentation architecture design, especially from the metrological point of view. (author)

[en] The first application of a thinned back-illuminated ion-implanted and laser annealed CCD as a detector for extreme ultraviolet spectroscopy is described. The observed stigmatic spectra are in the 40-70 nm region and are produced by the excitation of some noble gases in open hollow cathode source installed in a normal incidence toroidal grating spectrograph. The results are compared with spectra obtained by other detector systems applied to the same instrumentation, showing that the CCD offers a much greater detection capability than a system using a converting scintillator and a comparable one with respect to a photon counting detector. (author)

[en] In this article we present a novel approach for the characterization of cold appliances and in particular of refrigerators based on the standard vapour compression cycle with a reciprocating on/off compressor. The test procedure is based on a virtual instrument that perform both the stimulus and the data acquisition on the device under test. Acquired data is elaborated to fit a semi-empirical model based on the energetic balances between thermal and electrical sub systems and the heat exchanged with the environment. This approach results in a simple method to calculate useful parameters of the refrigerator, such as energetic performance, cooling effect and limit values of thermal loads. The test procedure requires only a few temperatures and the electric power consumption to be monitored, resulting in a low impact on the refrigerator. Preliminary tests showed a good estimation of parameters and prediction of energy consumption and heat extraction capacity of the refrigerator under test

[en] A prototype Low Gap BPM system has been installed at ELETTRA and it is now undergoing the first tests. The main purpose of this system is to provide ultra-stable position signals, at the micrometer level, to the Orbit Feedback processors. The system consists of a new Low Gap monitor and a new digital BPM electronics. The monitor was designed at ELETTRA and fits to the 14 mm low gap ID vacuum chamber. Full advantage has been taken from the reduced gap button distance. To reach maximum stability of the BPM itself, a new support system has been designed where, by means of two bellows, the BPM movements are de-coupled from the vacuum chamber slow drifts. Furthermore an external system monitors the BPM position with respect to a reference column made of carbonium. The Low Gap BPM system adopts the digital BPM electronics that was conceived at the Paul Scherrer Institut for the Swiss Light Source (SLS). One of its features is the programmable bandwidth that offers sub-micron position data when set to low bandwidth (<1 kHz). The project evolved into a successful collaborative development between ELETTRA, APL, SLS and the company Instrumentation Technologies. In this paper the first results obtained on the ELETTRA Storage Ring are presented and future system integration is outlined