Optics-less Sensors for Localization of Radiation Sources

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel class of optics-less radiation sensors that utilize arrays of simple sub-sensors and advanced signal processing to accurately localize and estimate the intensity of multiple radiation sources without the need for optical components.

Contribution

The paper presents a new design for radiation sensors that operate without optics, combining elementary sub-sensors with statistical estimation techniques for source localization.

Findings

Sensors achieve accurate localization based on noise level and sensor array size.

Localization accuracy depends on source spacing and sensor noise.

Theoretical and simulation results confirm effectiveness for multiple sources.

Abstract

A new family of radiation sensors is introduced which do not require any optics. The sensors consist of arrays of elementary sub-sensors with natural cosine-law or similar angular sensitivity supplemented with a signal processing unit that computes optimal statistical estimations of source parameters. We show, both theoretically and by computer simulation, that such sensors are capable of accurate localization and intensity estimation of a given number of radiation sources and of imaging of a given number of sources in known positions. The accuracy is found to be dependent only on the sub-sensors noise level, on the number of sub-sensors and on the spacing between radiation sources.