Press Release April 2024
Instrumentation GmbH

Page 1 of 2

© Spectrum

Next-generation EPR spectrometer at reduced costs,
size and weight
Digitizers and AWGs by Spectrum Instrumentation at the heart of the new instruments
Grosshansdorf, Germany – 17. April 2024. Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) or Electron Spin Resonance (ESR)
spectroscopy is similar to Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy but examines the nature of unpaired electrons
instead of nuclei such as protons. It is used in the fields of chemistry, biology, material science, and physics to study theelectronic structure of metal complexes or organic radicals. Traditionally, EPR spectroscopy requires massive
electromagnets that can weigh over a ton and therefore, are often located in basements. Bridge12, located near Boston in
the USA, has launched a next generation EPR spectrometer that is about half the cost of current instruments and a tenthof the size and weight so that it can be located on any floor of a building. At the heart of the system is a pair of Spectrum
Instrumentation cards – an Arbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG) to generate the pulses and a Digitizer to capture thereturning signal.
Thorsten Maly, VP Magnetic Resonance at Bridge12, said, “As a start-up, we had a clean slate to design our EPR spectrometer
enabling us to use the latest technologies to create a next generation product that is much more compact than existingproducts. This will open up the use of this methodology to a much greater audience of researchers. Most of our customers
are university researchers who gain access to the method through collaborations. Having a cheaper, state-of-the-art
instrument will increase access to this powerful method. Our third goal was to make it much easier to use than current devices
that need an experienced operator so that any scientist can use it for theirresearch which will make EPR spectroscopy more widely used. Our control
software has been designed to be intuitive to use with many features
automated so that the set-up is straightforward, and it immediately shows if
the experiment is working correctly. You don’t have to be an expert in EPR
spectroscopy to obtain results.”
How EPR works
An example of where EPR spectroscopy can be used is in structural biology todetermine distances between radicals to determine the folded shape of(membrane) proteins. This can provides insights on how these proteins caninteract with other molecule or proteins. This is done by attaching two spinlabels (markers) to the protein and measuring their distance using pulsed
dipolar spectroscopy, a form of pulse EPR spectroscopy. The spin labels are
specially designed, non-reactive, radical molecules that EPR spectroscopy candetect by exciting the radical with a sequence of microwave pulses anddetecting the response. The dipolar coupling between the spins directly leads
to the distance the two markers. Spin label pairs can be put in different placeson the protein to generate a set of distances that can be used to determine
the three-dimensional model of how the protein is folded.

Smaller, lighter, cost-effective: The EPR
spectrometer by Bridge 12 opens this technology
to many more scientists

Low-noise and modular components“EPR spectroscopy can measure distances in the range of 1 – 100 Angstroms but requires very accurately generated pulse
sequences which is why we used Spectrum Instrumentation cards as they have extremely low levels of noise,” said Maly. “Inaddition, our spectrometer is designed to be modular so that the customer can specify exactly what performance they want
and then we select the perfect AWG and Digitizer from Spectrum’s extensive range without being forced to use an overspecified card. What we particularly like about the Spectrum cards is that they come integrated into Netboxes that thenconnects to our PC through ethernet. That way we can use a compact PC and not one that must be big enough to insert cards
or have a bulky rack solution. It makes it also much easier to service our instrument and replace components in the field.”
Operation in the 35 GHz Q band range
Headquarters

US OfficeSpectrum Instrumentation GmbH, Germany
Phone: +49 4102-6956-0
Email: Info@spec.de

Spectrum Instrumentation Corp., USA
Phone: (201) 562-1999
Email: Sales@spectrum-instrumentation.com

https://www.spectrum-instrumentation.com

Press Release April 2024
Page 2 of 2
© Spectrum
Instrumentation GmbHEPR spectroscopy has evolved over the past few decades thanks to advances in radar technology and the mobile
telecommunications that created equipment that could be used to build EPR hardware which uses microwave technologythat needs increasingly higher frequencies for better resolution. Historically, EPR spectrometers have operated at 10 GHz (XBand) but thanks to 5G technology there is now new commercial equipment that can operate at much higher frequencies
such as 35 GHz (Q band), a frequency that is much more desired for this type of application.
The AWG generates 10 – 100 ns long pulses in the 200 to 500 MHz range as required by the experiment that are then first
up-converted to X band range using an RF I/Q mixer and then up-converted to the Q band range. The microwave pulses arethen fed into 100 W solid-state amplifier before sent to the EPR resonator.
The reflected signal is then down-converted to an IF frequency in the 200 to
500 MHz range and sent to the digitizer. In EPR spectroscopy, the signal is
traditionally down-converted to DC, however, this new approach drasticallyreduces noise and artifacts.
An example of the type of AWG generated pulses used in a modern EPR
experiment is shown in figure 2. WURST (wideband, uniform rate, smoothtruncation) pulses are broadband microwave pulses with an excitation
bandwidth and profile that exceeds that of a simple rectangular pulse by far.
Pulses like this allow for broadband excitation in EPR spectroscopy and heavily
rely on the performance of the AWG.
AWG generated WURST pulses at 34 GHz

Intense magnetic fields with much lighter magnets
The other factor is being able to generate intense magnetic fields in the order of 1 to 1.5 Tesla which traditionally requires ahuge, heavy electromagnet. Maly explained, “We are using a much smaller, super-conducting magnet to produce the requiredmagnetic field strength. For this experiment, the sample always needs to be cooled to cryogenic temperatures using helium
so we found a supplier of liquid cryogen-free (dry) magnets that are compact and can generate the high magnetic field of 1.2
Tesla but at a fraction of the size and weight at around 130 kg. Rather than using liquid helium, the instrument use a coldhead and helium compressor, which is effectively a fridge achieve cryogenic temperatures in a closed cycle. This is crucial asliquid helium is becoming increasingly hard to obtain.”
Maly concluded, “Spectrum’s 5-year warranty gives us great piece of mind as these are key parts of our EPR spectrometer.
The technical support was also first class in helping us set up the equipment so we know we can rely on Spectrum if any issues
occur for our customers in the future.”
Bridge12 Technologies new EPS spectrometer is available for purchase now and further details can be found athttps://www.bridge12.com
About Spectrum Instrumentation
Spectrum Instrumentation, founded in 1989, uses a unique modular concept to design and produce a wide range of morethan 200 digitizers and generator products as PC-cards (PCIe and PXIe) and stand-alone Ethernet units (LXI). In over 30 years,
Spectrum has gained customers all around the world, including many A-brand industry-leaders and practically all prestigious
universities. The company is headquartered near Hamburg, Germany, known for its 5-year warranty and outstanding support
that comes directly from the design engineers. More information about Spectrum can be found at www.spectruminstrumentation.com

Headquarters

US OfficeSpectrum Instrumentation GmbH, Germany
Phone: +49 4102-6956-0
Email: Info@spec.de

Spectrum Instrumentation Corp., USA
Phone: (201) 562-1999
Email: Sales@spectrum-instrumentation.com

https://www.spectrum-instrumentation.com