Advantage Electronic Product Development is in top final bidders to develop Android or Apple-controlled, high efficiency gamma and neutron radiation detector instrument.

Boulder/Broomfield -- March 10, 2014 -- Instrument development engineering firm Advantage Electronic Product Development is pleased to announce that it has advanced to the down-selection process after bidding on the development of high efficiency gamma and neutron radiation detectors used for identifying hidden threats of special nuclear materials (SNM), radiological sources and alternate signatures that indicate the presence of these materials (A common element of multiple detection of concepts-of-operations (CONOPs) for countering nuclear terrorism) for the Department of Defense.  The 3 year-long project of detector research, design, development, testing and build, is expected to fulfil a pressing need for lower-cost, more capable radiation detectors. A representative of the electrical engineering firm stated that direct measurement of gamma and neutron emission is one of very few definitive methods of detection and identification of both SNM and radiological sources.

Advantage has previous experience in the development of dual gamma-neutron detection analytical instruments. Having been recently commissioned by NASA/AMES, Advantage developed a spectroscopic dosimeter, an instrument which will be used to detect a variety of types of radiation particles for astronauts on the International Space Station, the first step in assuring the safety and health of deep space flight crews in the future.

As with nearly all industries today, the driving forces behind the Department of Defense’s demand for this effort are:

• Improvement in instrumentation performance (i.e. resolution, accuracy, expanded feature sets)
• Ease-of-use
• Cost of ownership

In a recent statement President/CEO, Jody Singleton declared "Advantage will be honored if awarded a contract and we will be proud to bring our unique capabilities in gamma spectroscopy threat detection as well as the benefits of the small size, light weight and exceptional power management features we typically employ in instrumentation development. With expertise in monitoring and precision measurement instrumentation we design instruments that monitor and analyze conditions - in real-time - with high accuracy. Additionally, we look forward to integrating mobile devices as the user interface into the new detectors."

As with numerous other instruments developed by Advantage, these meters will also be controlled via secure smart phone applications for Android and Apple. This will include features such as field upgradeability and real-time detector characterization where the user can tune the instrument to specific CONOPS based upon what is being detected in the field via the new devices.

About Advantage:

As a leader in the design, development and manufacture of innovative electronics systems through engineered solutions in monitoring, measurement, data-logging and analysis, Advantage’ goal for over 20 years, has been to simplify development, reduce costs and increase efficiency by creating smarter, more advanced instrumentation systems and distributed sensor networks with the ever-increasing power of technology. Capabilities include a wide range of analytical instrumentation development, support of space and Earth sciences and renewables/energy.