The detectors laboratory (DL) was created at LIP’s foundation with the main aim of supporting the experimental activities developed at LIP. The laboratory has been continuously updated according to the general and specific needs of the research groups. The available equipment and technical staff allow a variety of services, including the design, construction and repair of electronic circuits and vacuum systems, and the design, construction and testing of particle detectors.

Currently, large ongoing projects include the construction, mounting and testing of large area RPC-based systems for several projects in which LIP is involved, and of equipment for the SNO+ calibration system. The DL also gives support to many of the research groups at LIP.

The Mechanical Workshop (MW) of LIP was established in 1986, to support the experimental activities performed in collaboration with CERN. At present, the available equipment and the highly qualified staff allow us to perform a large spectrum of mechanical services, from project to production and testing. Today, the MW provides services not only to the CERN projects but also to research groups inside and outside LIP and to external companies.

The work developed by the MW is complemented by the Detectors Lab, as many of the projects developed by LIP need the competences of both facilities. Over three decades, the two infrastructures assured excellent quality support to gaseous detector R&D both at LIP and National level, as well as to the participation and responsibilities of LIP in large collaborations, namely CP-LEAR, DELPHI, HERA-B, ATLAS, HADES, Auger, LUX and SNO+. 

The e-CRLab is mainly dedicated to the development of electronics for Cosmic Ray experiments. The focus is put on fast digital electronics implemented in FPGAs.

The laboratory has the capability to design complex printed circuit boards and to produce simple printed circuit board (PCB) prototypes. The production of complex PCB and its assembly is outsourced. There is capability to do rework in PCB boards. A small set of mechanical tools allows the production of simple detector prototypes mainly for proofs of concept. Currently, the e-CRLab is involved in the development of instrumentation for the MARTA project for the Pierre Auger Observatory and in the testing of radiation damage of components for ESA. In addition, the lab gives support to outreach and education purposes, particularly in the development of equipment for education purposes, such as the aMu muon telescope.

The laboratory was established in the framework of the ATLAS experiment, to provide support for detector R&D and construction. It focuses on the characterization of plastic scintillators and clear, scintillating and wavelength shifting (WLS) optical fibres.

The laboratory was set up in collaboration with CFNCUL (Centro de Física Nuclear da Universidade de Lisboa), where it was located. The laboratory was used to select radiation hard scintillators and WLS fibres for the ATLAS Tilecal calorimeter, and for the massive preparation and quality control of the WLS fibre sets used in the calorimeter. It was also used for several detector R&D projects: 
DELPHI, ALFA, RD52/ DREAM, and SNO+.

The laboratory is equipped for testing and preparation of scintillators, optical fibres, photomultipliers and related electronics. The main test setup is used for the characterization of plastic WLS or scintillating optical fibres in large numbers, using holders for the scan of up to 32 fibres at a time. It can use both direct radiation from a 90Sr radioactive source to produce light in the fibres or use an additional scintillator as light source. There are additional setups to test scintillators and PMTs. There are facilities for the preparation and aluminization of plastic optical fibres by magnetron sputtering, and the facility allows the deposition of aluminium mirrors in the top of fibres with variable length up to 3 m.

The TagusLIP Laboratory is a LIP research infrastructure installed in 2004 at the Lisbon Science and Technology Park (Taguspark).

The campus is home to a University (IST), several research centres, as well as a large spectrum of startups and PMEs. TagusLIP was conceived as a generic infrastructure for the development of radiation detectors with emphasis on nuclear medicine imaging technologies opened to external entities. The TagusLIP laboratory is equipped with the necessary instrumentation for R&D on radiation detectors and associated electronics, and data acquisition, including electronics lab equipment, computing and networking systems.

The laboratory offers software tools for developing analog and digital electronic integrated circuits (Cadence), for firmware development (Xilinx and Altera), and for the design of printed circuit boards (Altium). The TagusLIP has a computing and data storage infrastructure, suitable to software projects in various areas, such as data acquisition, equipment control, data analysis and image processing. The TagusLIP is licensed for the use of radiation sources needed to develop and test new instruments in nuclear medicine.

The groups using the laboratory hold large experience in the development, commissioning and operation of large electronics and data acquisition systems in particle physics experiments and medical instrumentation, particularly in the design and implementation of ASICs for SiPM readout. The PETsysstart-up company has recently been using the TagusLIP infrastructure for the development and validation of Time-of-Flight PET technology. The TOFPET ASIC series is being developed that range from PET systems to the CMS experiment.