The BioCAT team, led by Prof. Thomas Irving (Illinois Institute of Technology) has been awarded $2 million in supplementary funds from the National Institutes of Health to upgrade the BioCAT beamline. These funds will let us upgrade our x-ray optics (mostly original to the beamline and more than 20 years old) to modern state-of-the-art systems that can take full advantage of the new upgraded APS source. These new optics will provide smaller, more intense x-ray beams and improved beam stability.
This project will replace the focusing optics with new KB-style horizontal and vertical focusing mirrors and the monochromator with a new system with both silicon and multilayer optics to provide both energy resolution and high flux. The upgrade is expected to take ~2 years to complete and user operations will continue unhindered while it is taking place.