Sensors in Extreme Environments

Of all the environments likely to be encountered during the pursuit of science, commerce or medicine, few can match the extremes encountered in Space. Instrumentation deployed above the Earth's protective atmosphere and magnetic field can be subject to extreme low pressure (or extreme high pressure in the case of descent through dense atmospheres), charged particle fluxes which would render conventional electronics inoperative, temperature variations of hundreds of degrees in a few minutes, violent vibration during launch and landing, and a number of other hostile elements any one of which terrestrial systems are seldom required to tolerate. Yet hardware deployed in this most extreme of environments must function unattended for the duration of a mission / often several years / and must achieve the high performance required of them in miniaturised, low mass, power-efficient packages. It is therefore unsurprising that space instrumentation is one of the most demanding fields of sensor development, or that devices developed for this application frequently possess characteristics which make them ideal for adaptation to extreme or exacting applications on Earth.This proposal describes the creation of a new research group - the Space and Hazardous Environments Sensors Group - specialising in the development of new sensor technologies for extreme environments. The main research theme will be in the development of devices for space, and the group will adopt a proactive approach to sensor development enabling it to respond to a wide range of mission opportunities with established agencies such as ESA. A key strategy of the group will be to develop new technologies which address the longer term goals of these agencies, and, supported by a network of academic and industrial partners, we will further extend collaboration with research groups working in other areas of detector research (bio-medical, industrial). We will also seek to broaden its funding base through the commercialisation of selected technologies, and the group includes a Technology Translator who has expertise in this area.The Space and Hazardous Environment Sensors Group is comprised of a number of younger researchers in the Space Research Centre, and is led by the applicant. Mechanical and electronic engineering support is also provided by younger members of the Centre, but in all cases the assistance of more experienced members of the organisation is available, as is the full equipment and organisational infrastructure of the Space Research Centre (as evidenced by a letter of support by the Head of Department). A number of exciting new technologies are identified in the proposal as prime areas of research in the first 5 years of the group's work, and this work will lead to the Space and Hazardous Environment Sensors Group establishing an international reputation for excellence in developing detector technologies for space and a wide variety of challenging environments on Earth - from within the human body to the centre of nuclear power installations.