Sensors & Electronics
Awards & Recognition
R&D 100 Awards
The Sunna Dosimeter™ accurately measures radiation doses to food and other irradiated products.2000 - Sunna Dosimeter™
Developers: Steven D. Miller, Mark K. Murphy, Alex G.Fassbender (Sunna Systems Corporation), William L. McLaughlin (National Institute of Standards and Testing), Andras Kovacs (Hungarian Academy of Sciences)
The revolutionary Sunna Dosimeter™ will help decrease the incidences of foodborne illnesses such as E. coli by assuring the quality and safety of the food products before they reach the public. The Sunna Dosimeter™ is a significant breakthrough in dosimetry technologies because it is low cost, versatile, and extremely precise. These qualities make the dosimeter an ideal quality assurance tool not only for the food irradiation industry but for other industries requiring accurate measurement-in a variety of difficult environments-of radiation levels used in their processes. This includes medical equipment sterilization, medical imaging, agriculture, telecommunications, and the radiation processing industry (e.g., curing of environmentally friendly inks and paints that require no solvents.)
The Sunna Dosimeter™ uses light instead of heat to read the amount of radiation measured by a dosimeter. It is a composite made of lithium fluoride and a plastic that is transparent to the photon emission of the dosimeter material. The dosimeter traps and stores energy from exposure to ionizing radiation fields. The amount of exposure can be determined by shining a blue light on the dosimeter and measuring the intensity of the green or red light emitted. This allows instantaneous, repeatable reading. The readout is performed using a fluorimeter that quantifies the fluorescence signal emitted from the dosimeter.
The Sunna Dosimeter™ measures radiation dose over a dynamic range greater than three decades (<0.1 to 100 kGy). It provides quick, accurate, simple, and cost-effective dose readings; is water and humidity-resistant; and has a multiyear shelf life. The product is based on scientific discoveries made during research into the Cooled Optically Stimulated Luminescence (COSL) technology, which won an R&D 100 Award in 1992. COSL measures radiation in dosimeters and other thermoluminescent materials using light at or below room temperature. Dosimeters can be re-read, and a variety of packaging is possible.
Following their success with the COSL for personnel dosimetry, the researchers began looking into other uses for the technology, including medical equipment sterilization and food irradiation. They formed a new company, Sunna Systems Corporation, to market the new technology. Sunna Systems Corporation has an exclusive, worldwide license from Battelle Memorial Institute to commercialize the OSL technology in high dose and other fields of use.
Excerpted from PNNL R&D 100 webpage.
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