The Accelerator Behind the Scenes of Essential Tech

At the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the 88-Inch Cyclotron is a powerful machine built to accelerate ions and explore the atomic nucleus. For decades, it has helped scientists probe the building blocks of matter.

There’s another side to this machine that is less well known but equally impactful: It’s an indispensable testbed for electronics, materials, and medical isotopes. By delivering beams of charged particles that can be tuned to different energies and compositions, the 88-Inch Cyclotron plays a surprising and wide-ranging role in science and technology — advancing energy technologies, helping spacecraft survive radiation, and improving cancer treatments.

In collaboration with companies, universities, and government partners, here are a few examples of how the 88-Inch Cyclotron has made modern technology more reliable, resilient, and revolutionary:

Much of the 88-Inch Cyclotron’s work is in testing electronics components — think microchips and circuit boards — to make sure they can stand up to harsh environments. These efforts are concentrated at the Berkeley Accelerator Space Effects (BASE) Facility, which can emulate years of exposure to space radiation in just hours. Since pioneering this type of heavy ion testing in 1979, researchers have used the 88-Inch Cyclotron to test every generation of GPS — the system behind smartphone directions, app-based location services, shipping logistics, emergency response, and many more everyday applications. By assessing how cosmic rays deposit energy and damage electronics on satellites, manufacturers can then design resilient components to keep this crucial tool running smoothly.