High Sensitivity Directional Hand Held Portable Microelectronics Neutron Detector

The United States faces a broad range of nuclear threats and technologies are needed to prevent or mitigate nuclear incidents. SMI has invented (patent pending) a near 100 volume percent efficient, real-time, microelectronic self calibrating and directional radiation detector. We can increase detector area to increase broad sensitivity and the number of layers to increase directionality. We herein propose to package our detector into a battery powered light weight man-portable instrument that can swiftly detect radioactive materials, identify their location(s), quantify the radioactivity, and display/report the results. Further, the instrument base sensitivity and directionality can easily be augmented by an add-in detector "antenna" array. These capabilities are fully supported with detailed calculations based on known minimum performance of our detector design. In Phase 1 we will demonstrate, by measuring radiation fluxes from known sources, using a bench top proof of concept unit and in Phase 2 we will package and test instruments and sample them with appropriate organizations. Phase 3 is direct marketing of instruments to civilian and military organizations. Technical Implications of the Approach: The technical impact of our newly invented detector concept is extremely far reaching into many application areas and is sure to stimulate many additional technical innovations.