The LED BEACON has been developed at IFIC in collaboration with the University of Sheffield and the University of Leeds.

The LED Beacon is an optical device composed by several LEDs pulsed by dedicated electronic circuits emitting nanosecond pulses of blue light (470 nm). Each LED beacon contains a total of 36 LEDs arranged in groups of six, on the six faces of a hexagonal cylinder. On each face, one LED points upwards and the other five LEDs point radially outwards. Each LED can be flashed independently or in combination with the others. The light intensity can be controlled externally from shore. The 36 LEDs are synchronized to the level of 300 ps before be deployed at sea.

The LED beacon is housed inside a cylindrical pressure-resistant glass vessel. There are four LED BEACONS per line and 48 in the whole detector.

The system of Optical Beacons, Laser and LED, provides a number of well controlled, pulsed light sources that act as a reference for the time calibration of the detector.