USRA 2020 IRAD awarded

November, 2019

Congratulations to Dr. Oliver Roberts for his selection of a 2020 USRA IRAD.  His IRAD, entitled "Detector Development for the Moonbeam Concept Study," will characterize and deliver a phosphor sandwich (phoswich) detector with Silicon Photo-multiplier (SiPM) readout for future SmallSat and CubeSat studies.  While individually both methods have a high TRL, combined, the TRL is much lower.  This IRAD will deliver a simulation package for future mission studies and will raise the TRL of the phoswich detector system, including readout.  This will yield many benefits for small, future payload missions at reasonable cost, providing the highest sensitivity and detection efficiency possible for price, size and mass constraints.