ECETD

ECETD

Dec 10

 

ECETD is for Electro-Chemical Etching of Track Detectors. ECETD is intended for processing (etching) of general purpose polycarbon Compact Discs. The material of the CDs, i.e. polycarbon, being exposed to ionization radiation, particularly caused by Radon, keeps the tracks of the alpha particles. The intensity  of tracks is an integral estimate of the intensity of the ionization radiation on the place where the CDs are stored. This can be used for monitoring of ionization radiation in living areas. The tracks are very small and can be visualized by using of electron beam microscopy only. The etching process realized in ECETD makes the tracks visible by optical microscopes or even with unaided eyes.

ECETD consists of electronic control and supply unit (ECU) and thermo-stabilized processing platform (PP). The ECU output voltage used for electro chemical etching can be set in the range from 200 V to 4000 V RMS, the frequency is fixed to 6000 Hz. The voltage is stabilized in the range of ±10 V RMS. An electronic open and short circuit protection is implemented. The temperature of the processing platform is controlled by Peltier elements in the range from 10°C to 40°C with an accuracy of ±0.1°C.

The equipment can work in two modes – Test Mode (TM) and Processing Mode (PM). In TM the output voltage is increased manually by using an incremental encoder in order to check if there is a short circuits in processed detectors. Once the detectors are checked, a PM can be implemented. The parameters of the processing are set and indicated on ECU LCD with touch panel. These include: the ECU output voltage, the temperature of the PP, the processing time. The sound signal informs about the end of the processing as well as about any abnormal situation – short or open circuit, fail of the cooling fans of the PP, power recovery after black-out. ECU can communicate with an external PC in order to write a log file.