Characteristics of Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) Dust Detectors
- Require no operating bias voltage.
- Long term stability during storage. Operate indefinitely -50°C to +100°C
with no degradation in dust response.
- Recent development of PVDF copolymer sensors expected to extend stability
range to -60°C to +115°C.
- Highly radiation resistant. No measurable change in response up to ~107
rad.
- Response to dust impacts unaffected by high background fluxes of charged particles.
- Fast detector response (few ns) enables accurate counting for high dust fluxes
(intense transient dust streams, planetary rings).
- Proven space performance on VEGA-1/2 missions to comet Halley.
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