Home

For a short general overview please refer to the main readme.

There are two detector versions based on the same circuit board using similar components:

• Electron-Detector variant which is easier to build, use and more sensitive (more sensor volume than the Alpha-Spectro.)
• Alpha-Spectrometer variant which can measure characteristic energy spectra of alpha decays (and also count electrons)

For scientific context on the physics of the diode sensors and how it works, please have a look at the corresponding paper. It explains for example why the sensitivity to gamma radiation is rather low for both detector variants.

Please post your own builds in the Discussions such that I can add them to the Gallery! 😀

Project introduction talk at rC3, remote CCC Congress, December 2020:

youtube english, youtube german translation, CCC media server with all versions, PDF slides

Wiki Overview

• Hardware/Electronics

  • Assembly Instructions - parts, tools, build instructions and troubleshooting
  • Batteries - rechargeable 9 V NIMH accumulators are recommended
  • Cables - connecting the signal output to a soundcard or a smartphone's/laptop's headset socket
  • Diodes - different types of PIN photodiodes, blocking of radiation/light etc.
  • Enclosures - chose the right kind of metal box for your DIY particle detector
  • Soundcards - recommended low-cost USB soundcards, recording settings
  • Troubleshooting - debugging the detector after assembly

• Taking detector data, recording and analysing measurements

  • Energy Spectra particle energy spectra and reference energy calibration
  • Oscilloscope Measurements great for checking if the detector works well
  • Software different kinds of freely available recording, analysing and simulation software

• Supplementary material (mostly related to the paper)

  • Diode Characterisation (C-V measurements revealing physical properties of the diodes)
  • Pixel Detectors (comparison of the diodes with pixel detectors from CERN)

• Workshops

  • Science Days Digital 2020 (Online-Workshop, in German)
  • Gathering of Open Science Hardware 2018 in Shenzhen China, workshop documentation
  • S'Cool LAB Summer Camp 2018 at CERN, poster presentation, page 3
  • Student Summer School of Barcelona Technoweek 2017, CERN news
  • S'Cool LAB Summer Camp 2017 at CERN, poster presentation

• Project Support

  • The project received funding and support from the Fellow FreiesWissen program which is documented here.

• Online Coverage

  • Steve Foster, UK, September 2020: CERN at Home: Building a Particle Detector
  • Gigazine, Japan, September 2020: 自宅で作れるCERN公式「素粒子検出器レシピ」が公開中、DIYするとこんな感じ
  • Physics Open Lab, June 2020: CERN DIY Particle Detector
  • Electronics Lab, Mai 2020: DIY Silicon Photodiode Particle Detector directly from CERN
  • Hacker News, May 2020: DIY Particle Detector (cern.ch)

In case of questions or ideas, please make a new post in Discussions.
If you read German, another thread is also ongoing on the mikrocontroller.net forum.

---

Copyright Oliver Keller 2019-2020.
This documentation describes Open Hardware and is licensed under the CERN OHL v. 1.2.
You may redistribute and modify this documentation under the terms of the CERN OHL v. 1.2. (http://ohwr.org/cernohl).
This documentation is distributed WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, INCLUDING OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.