A hand-held neutron detection sensor systems

Authors

K. Osberg, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
N. Schemm, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
S. Balkir, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Jennifer I. Brand, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
M. Susan Hallbeck, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Peter A. Dowben, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

9-11-2006

Comments

This paper appears in: 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 2006. ISCAS 2006. Proceedings.

Abstract

In this paper, a hand-held neutron radiation sensor application is described. The sensor system utilizes a new class of boron-carbide diode that interacts with incoming neutrons. To interface with the boron-carbide diode an integrated front-end is designed in a 1.5/spl mu/m standard CMOS technology. With the diode and front-end microchip, a hand-held neutron detection system was realized with an embedded microcontroller for realtime processing. The hand-held detector operation was then tested with a plutonium-beryllium neutron source. Testing results confirm the validity of the approach and the functionality of the design.