3D printed radiation detectors

An activity with TDE and Seibersdorf Laboratories GmbH in Austria has developed two components for radiation measuring dosimeters using 3D printing.

Currently, on the International Space Station (ISS) a suite of instruments are used to monitor the radiation environment including the Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC), the Charged Particle Directional Spectrometer (CPDS), the Radiation Area Monitor (RAM), and the Crew Passive Dosimeter (CPD).

A Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC) is designed to measure the dose that a small volume of tissue would receive from a wide variety of radiation sources. The tissue equivalent part is constructed using an expensive, custom-made process and with rare materials, which often have an undesirable level of outgassing. Overall, construction of these components was seen as expensive and mechanically complex.

But the activity proposed that a more affordable and simpler version could be built using additive manufacturing, better known as 3D printing.

To develop the technology, the activity proposed and characterised a variety of conducting and insulating materials that could be used to construct the detector. A re-design of the instrument’s geometry was also proposed to take advantage of the additive manufacturing process.

The successfully re-designed detector has an integrated socket, embedded electrical connections for the conductive components and joined segments of insulating and conductive materials.

The test samples and the detector chamber produced with this new process underwent electrical tests but still need to undergo radiation testing.

Next, the activity plans to investigate using additive manufacturing alongside tissue-equivalent conductive materials.

AO/1-8876/17/NL/CRS closed in 2020.