A Power-Efficient Radiation Sensor Interface with a Peak-Triggered Sampling Scheme for Mobile Dosimeters

Area of Science:

• Electrical Engineering
• Sensor Technology
• Low-Power Electronics

Background:

• Battery-powered mobile dosimeters require low power consumption for long-term radiation monitoring.
• Conventional radiation sensor interfaces often face challenges with power efficiency and signal distortion.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel power-efficient radiation sensor interface for mobile dosimeters.
• To reduce the power consumption of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in radiation sensing applications.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a peak-triggered sampling scheme for the ADC.
• Quantization of the peak analog input signal, representing radiation energy, at a high sampling frequency.
• Fabrication of the sensor interface using a 0.18-μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process.

Main Results:

• The proposed sampling scheme reduces ADC operation time, leading to significant power savings.
• Power consumption is reduced to 21.5% of continuous operation levels under worst-case conditions (radiation input every 10 μs).
• The fabricated interface consumes only 1.11 mW, demonstrating high power efficiency.

Conclusions:

• The peak-triggered sampling scheme effectively lowers power consumption in radiation sensor interfaces.
• This approach avoids signal distortion associated with conventional shapers by directly quantizing peak values.
• The developed interface is suitable for long-term, battery-powered mobile radiation monitoring applications.