Characterization of Teledyne microdosimeters for space weather applications

The Teledyne microdosimeter is a novel miniature dosimeter that has become recently available to satellite manufacturers and programs to provide awareness of the total radiation dose received by the satellite and its associated subsystems. A characterization of the response of the dosimeter to protons of energies from 30 - 200 MeV as a function of angle, energy and dose rate is presented in this paper. In addition, the response of the dosimeter to a simulated Solar proton event with several different levels of shielding has been measured. These results show that the dosimeter response is relatively uniform over a wide range of conditions for protons. Monte Carlo modeling of the dosimeter for isotropic particle fluxes (both electrons and protons) has also been accomplished. It is shown that a simplified model is appropriate in determining the response of the dosimeter when using it to design low cost, simple instruments for space weather and situational awareness applications.