Centronic MAPS cameras Operating in Radiation Environments (C-MORE)

This project presents the opportunity to introduce a disruptive technology based on UK
research to replace and displace the 40 year old vacuum tube technology presently used by the
nuclear industry.
Radiation tolerant cameras are used in civil nuclear facilities to provide visual feedback for
remote operations and to permit inspection and monitoring in areas where it is not appropriate
for human operators to be exposed to the ambient radiation doses. To survive gamma doses
in excess of 1E6 Rad and provide long term stable operation cameras based on vacuum tube
technology (vidicon or chalnicon) are used. Chalnicon tubes are now obsolete and vidicon
tubes will become obsolete when the last remaining manfacturer (in Germany) ceases
production. This is because the primary market for tubes has diminished as broadcast
television and medical imaging users have adopted alternative solutions. Some vendors offer
conventional silicon video cameras (CCD or CMOS) for nuclear use however these typically
survive an integrated gamma dose of ~1E4 Rad and so are either unusable or must be
frequently replaced, adding to human dose during replacement and increasing the volume of
low or intermediate level waste.
We have established that a team at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have developed
a novel silicon (CMOS) detector for high energy physics experiments which happens also to
be capable of functioning as a video camera. Test data from STFC indicates that the device is
very radiation tolerant however their data all relates to irradiation with electrons. The nuclear
industry characterises radiation tolerance in terms of gamma dose so before we can make a
yes/no decision on whether to develop a product based on the STFC device we need to
generate some gamma ray dose information. The only credible way of doing this is to build a
test rig and perform "dose rate" and "total dose" measurements which are prohibitively
expensive for us to undertake given the risk of a possible negative outcome. STFC are
supportive of our project but their scientific programme does not have a motivation to fund
the measurements we need for this industrial application.
Centronic's existing radiation tolerant camera business (Raditec) was spun out from AEA
technology around ten years ago and enjoys a world-wide reputation for its tube based
cameras. Over 50% of our production is exported, primarily in recent years to nuclear
facilities in the Far East. We are receiving an increasing volume of enquiries concerned about
obsolescence of the tube technology with customers increasingly seeking semiconductor
camera alternatives. We have an opportunity to import and repackage a design from Korea but
would prefer to develop our own platform working with a UK supply chain which we can
more readily influence and collaborate with.
This project will not go as far as developing the new product but will generate the data we
need in order to justify that subsequent investment.