ABSTRACT
The great advances in microelectronics allow the creation of more sophisticated structures in the front-end electronics of modern pixel detectors. Although many institutions and companies are developing new devices, they all can be divided into two categories—charge-integrating devices or single-quantum-counting devices. Examples of charge-integrating devices are charge-coupled devices, flat panels, and complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor pixel detectors. The radiation environment monitor (REM) hardware was designed as a demonstration project to show the possibility of creating small, lightweight, low-power radiation monitors using state-of-the-art pixel detectors. Following the success of the REM hardware, NASA initiated two other projects focused on developing new stand-alone radiation monitors based on Timepix technology. One of these devices, the Hybrid Environmental Radiation Assessor device, will be the primary radiation monitor for the newly developed Orion module. Radiation monitors based on such devices would have zero dead time and would obtain the most complete set of information about a particle that can be obtained by one detector.
