Charles R Skinner

US Patent:

7038460, May 2, 2006

Filed:

Feb 27, 2004

Appl. No.:

10/787220

Inventors:

Charles H. Skinner - Lawrenceville NJ, US

Assignee:

The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy - Washington DC

International Classification:

G01N 27/62
G01N 27/00

US Classification:

324464, 324 714

Abstract:

An apparatus for detecting dust in a variety of environments which can include radioactive and other hostile environments both in a vacuum and in a pressurized system. The apparatus consists of a grid coupled to a selected bias voltage. The signal generated when dust impacts and shorts out the grid is electrically filtered, and then analyzed by a signal analyzer which is then sent to a counter. For fine grids a correlation can be developed to relate the number of counts observed to the amount of dust which impacts the grid.