Innovate UK awards top rating to Huddersfield radiation detector project
30 May 2018
Innovate UK has awarded a Knowledge Transfer Partnership top rating to a collaboration that has pioneered the development of a mobile phone-sized radiation detector.
Huddersfield-based radiation detection technology Kromek teamed up with the University of Huddersfield School of Computing and Engineering to develop and manufacture the advanced compact devices.
The work was undertaken in two Knowledge Transfer Partnership projects – funded by Innovate UK in order to encourage links between universities and businesses. Both have now received Innovate UK’s ‘Very Good‘ rating for the quality of work produced.
The first two year KTP developed the electronic signal processing chain for optimal performance. The second KTP was designed to enhance the device’s neutron detector and involved materials and sensor development together with additional electronics.
Two Huddersfield electronics graduates, Richard Haigh and Toby Izod, were embedded with the company, working with Kromek’s neutron product director Dr Ed Marsden and coordinating with electronics degrees course leader Dr Pete Mather. Haigh and Izod are now full time employees of the company.
New, increasingly sophisticated generations of the devices are under development, said Marsden. In addition to sectors such as defence and cyber security, users can include first fire fighters and environmental monitoring is another potential use.
Kromek devices are used in tandem with smartphones. The devices can transmit updated radiation data, be used as standalone real-time infield isotope ID, or can be linked via a cloud-augmented wide area network, mapping radiation.
Pic: Toby Izod, Dr Ed Marsden and Richard Haigh
