Dosimeter Calibrator Development

In 2012 Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world’s leader in Applied Science with a global presence in over 50 countries, approached PSA with a new project. Our collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific consisted of two parts: Dosimeter Calibrator Development and extended support.

Radiation is a potentially hazardous energy that must be accurately monitored in environments like nuclear power stations, plants and scientific laboratories, among others.

For the purpose of radiation level control and absorbed dose measurement, these institutes utilize personal electronic hand-held dosimeters. The information provided by these dosimeters is vitally important for health and safety reasons, and it’s crucial that this information is gathered accurately and reliably. Once manufactured, personal dosimeters have a factory-default set of parameters, and each device requires calibration against a predefined level of radiation before shipment to the end customer.

One of our challenging projects in the area of Embedded Software Solutions was developing a PC and Web-based software for controlling machinery that calibrates these devices,  as well as providing calibration verification, analysis and reporting. The key functions of these applications are on-site and remote configuration, monitoring of calibration processes (via the web-app), as well as granting control over dosimeter routing and configuration within the machinery hardware.

Besides building the application’s architecture, GUI design and software itself, the scope of work also included User and Maintenance Guides creation, full offsite functional testing and onsite integration, and acceptance sessions with the customer’s counterparts.

The primary objective for the Dosimeter Calibrator Development project was to develop software for a calibration station for the new personal dosimeter EPD CV-2. The calibration application would run on a dedicated PC and interact with EPDs undergoing irradiation tests in the Source Exposure Modules. In addition, our team was expected to provide verification, analysis and reporting services.

With this new project, PSA was to release the new version of the application along with implementing the features to support next-generation radiological dosimeters with enhanced performance capabilities. 

The final stage of the project involved on-site testing for verification of the updated functionality with the new dosimeter prototypes on the actual Calibrator equipment. On location in Germany, the equipment performed calibration of parameters and tuning of personal dosimeters used in hazardous environments, such as nuclear power stations, plants, scientific laboratories and more. PSA performed the software integration for the customer’s representatives from both the UK and Germany.

• Requirements definition.
• Software and GUI architecture, design, and implementation.
• Database measurements collection, analysis, reports.
• Web application configuration.
• Web application reporting.
• Test case definition and functional.
• Integration and site acceptance testing.
• User guide development.
• Maintenance guide development.