11–13 Jun 2025
ESA/ESTEC
Europe/Amsterdam timezone

Radiation detectors for small satellites

11 Jun 2025, 12:00
20m
ESCAPE Tennis hall (ESA/ESTEC)

ESCAPE Tennis hall

ESA/ESTEC

Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, Netherlands
Oral presentation Radiation instruments 1

Speaker

Simeon Ivanov (Space Fluent LTD)

Description

Ionizing radiation measurements of primary and secondary sources on small satellites is currently limited to a very small number of detector types with poor energy resolution and timing characteristics and very limited geometry. SF develops a modular system that overcomes these limitations within the technological constraints of the small satellite platform and deliver high performance scintillator detectors that can accommodate arbitrary form factor requirements and provide high-resolution, large dynamic range and fast measurements with applications for spectroscopy, dosimetry and individual event reconstructions.
The measurements of deposited energy and position of interaction are obtained from scintillators using photon counters or a SiPM/Pin diode matrix or a fet/diode combined sensor. A simple readout system and an FPGA-based ToA/ToT/PSD framework for data processing has been implemented. A multi-step method for analysis and reconstruction of the observed events from the data in FPGA is presented.
Three detectors based on the described framework will be presented, a system of panels that can provide comprehensive radiation measurements for the exposure from charged particles of an enclosed volume, a small-volume detector for charged and neutral particles and a low-power, point semiconductor detector for accumulated and current dose. All detectors are completely autonomous and deliver calibrated measurement data to the consumer device over standard serial protocols.

Primary author

Simeon Ivanov (Space Fluent LTD)

Co-author

Mr Svetoslav Ivanov (Space Fluent)

Presentation materials