Commissioning of the EXCYT facility at INFN-LNS

The commissioning of the EXCYT facility has been recently completed by delivering a post-accelerated radioactive beam to the users. Extensive tests of the whole installation have been accomplished over the last year. At the beginning the source and the mass separator were tested by producing a stable 7Li beam, then the charge exchange cell was tested with the same stable beam, and finally a 8Li beam was produced and transported through the mass separator to the Tandem for the post-acceleration. Acceleration tests at the Tandem have started and will be completed in the next few months. In the last year the upgrading programme of the Superconducting Cyclotron has also gone ahead: significant improvements have been introduced to the electrostatic deflector, in order to increase the extracted current of 13C, 45 AMeV beam, since it was chosen as a primary beam for the 8Li production. The project status is given here, along with a detailed description of the commissioning tests performed and the results obtained.