CONVENCIÓN DE ESTUDIANTES DE CENTROAMÉRICA Y PANAMÁ, CONESCAPAN 2016, GUATEMALA, GUATEMALA.
Design, Assembly and Calibration of a
microcontroller-based Geiger-Müller doserate meter
Iván Morales, Member, IEEE, Andrés Monterroso, and Silvio Urizar, Student Member, IEEE
Abstract—This article explains the design, assembly and cali-
bration of a basic Geiger-Müller dose rate meter. The detector
was elaborated using a Texas Instruments MSP430 low-power
microcontroller, auxiliary analog front-end and high voltage
electronics, as well as a commercial Geiger-Müller tube as the
detector, which was calibrated to measure the ambient dose rate
equivalent. The main objective of this research is to produce
a high-quality and low-cost option for radiation detection in
delicate environments, such as hospitals, and hazardous wastes
storage centers. So that accidents regarding radiation can be
prevented. At the end of the day, a functional prototype was
built and tested, successfully demonstrating the proof of concept
and surpassing expected performance and accuracy.
Index Terms—Geiger-Müller, dose rate meter, radiation,
dosimetry, instrumentation, microcontroller, detector, calibration.
I. I NTRODUCTION
N Owadays, a large number of devices capable of detecting
ionizing radiation is available. However, the price of
these devices is very high, making them difficult to afford.
In addition, many of the equipment used in the academia and
research, are not portable and many tasks involving the use
of ionizing radiation, such as radioactive sources or X-ray
generators, require staff to work within these areas and their
radiation dose exposure must be known.
Due to these difficulties, it is very complicated for a
public institution in a developing country to obtain this
equipment (if not impossible), although necessary for good
control of the areas exposed to ionizing radiation. That’s
why this portable and low cost Geiger-Müller detector was
designed, built and calibrated. It aims to be able to detect
gamma and hard-beta radiation, being able to measure the
equivalent ambient dose rate [H*(10)], counts per minute
[CPM] and total absorbed dose, which are calibrated for
a beam quality in 137 Cs. These specifications are enough
to alert people staying nearby a potential hazard area (due
to interaction with ionizing radiation). The hardware was
designed, and a prototype was implemented. The prototype
uses an off-the-shelf Geiger-Müller (G-M) which was used
for testing and calibration, not limiting the compatible sensors
to this certain model. You should find all the steps on which
All authors are with the Instrumentation Laboratory of the Physical and
Mathematical Sciences School, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala,
Guatemala city, Guatemala.
A. Monterroso is also with the Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory
of Guatemala, Ministerio de Energı́a y Minas, Guatemala city, Guatemala.
E-mails of the authors, in order of appearance: ivan-
morales@ecfm.usac.edu.gt, edgar.andres.monterroso@gmail.com, and
silvio.a.u@ieee.org.
the final prototype was developed within this document,
divided in sections regarding the theory, implemented design,
building blocks and final results obtained after calibrating and
comparing the prototype with a commercial Geiger-Müller
detector.
II. O BJECTIVES
• Develop a low cost radiation detector to suffice the needs
of radiological protection of the public institutions in
Guatemala.
• Design a hardware+firmware system capable of detecting
ionizing radiation.
• Calibrate the low cost detector to measure ambient dose
rate equivalent [H*(10)].
III. M ETHODOLOGY
A. Sensor’s expected working conditions
Since the calibration was performed with a commercial G-
M tube, it is expected to operate under certain conditions
specified by the manufacturer, which are as follows:
• Starting voltage, between 280 and 330 [V ].
• Advised working voltage, between 360 and 440 [V ].
• Plateau length, at least 80 [V ].
−1
• Plateau slope = 0.125% / 1 [V ].
• Maximum natural background = 27 [CPM].
B. Hardware development
Before developing the front-end electronics for this device,
the sensor (Russian Geiger Tube STS-5) had to be put under
test so its behavior could be known and the electronics
optimized. A test bed was ellaborated using an oscilloscope,
a HV Lab Power Supply, a 90 Sr radioactive source, and the
sensor tube itself (Fig 1).
Based on the sensor’s expected working contidions; an
affordable, yet accurate HV power supply was designed to
deliver enough power to the circuit while maintaining low
ripple (200mV pk-pk at 524 HV out) (Fig 2).
While testing the sensor, we noticed that despite of
the relatively large period between each pulse (min. 400
microseconds), their slew rate was significantly high (over
5000 mV/us). So a high-speed operational amplifier had to be
used to acquire and condition the incoming pulses in order to
be detected by the microcontroller’s ISR.
CONVENCIÓN DE ESTUDIANTES DE CENTROAMÉRICA Y PANAMÁ, CONESCAPAN 2016, GUATEMALA, GUATEMALA.
Fig. 1. Mounted test bed to verify sensor’s sensitivity
Fig. 2. High-Voltage Power Supply Block Diagram
C. Firmware development
Firmware was mainly designed to work under externally-
and timer-driven interrupt events, avoiding input ports polling
and wait cycles. While this requirements considerably incre-
mented developing time, power efficiency was optimized and
pushed the microcontroller’s performance limits at their maxi-
mum, allowing the device to surpass the sensor’s sampling fre-
quency requirements and precisely measuring time (required
for dose rate computation). This allows for a flawlessly higher
performance sensor upgrade in the future.
Since everything is programmed in C, firmware is divided
in multiple files (and their corresponding headers). Each file
has been written to accomplish a specific task (e.g. display
driver, high-voltage power supply driver, dose rate computa-
tion module, etc.), so if a change or upgrade is required, only
its corresponding file has to be reprogrammed.
2
D. PCB design
Surface-mount devices where used to optimize the size
of the PCB; however some through-holw components were
present too, as some high-voltage components are only
available in this footprint. The PCB was designed using the
free software Kicad. It was determined that the design should
be done on a double-sided PCB. The final prototype is shown
in (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3. Prototype PCB
Finally, the prototype’s version 0.3 PCB was tested and
successfully accomplished the required specifications. Un-
fortunately, during the first attempt of calibration, it was
determined that the sensor required a higher voltage than
expected, which forced us to modify the already-manufactured
PCB. By changing the MOSFETs and adding some extra
inductors and high-voltage capacitors, and changing the step-
up converter’s frequency range, the desired high voltage values
were obtained. It is also planned to release a refined PCB
design in order to reduce its dimensions and solve the higher
voltage requirement issues found with this iteration.
E. Calibration
In order for the calibration to be considered valid, all
elements that form the Geiger Counter must be considered
as one, the system is integrated by the G-M tube STS-5, Lot
IX69 and the electronics prototype version 0.3. The whole
system must be calibrated altogether and under the same
conditions in order to be able to obtain satisfactory results.
1) High-voltage dependency: A Geiger-Müller tube is the
sensing element of the Geiger counter used for detecting
ionizing radiation. Due to its way of operating, all pulses it
produces are of the same amplitude regardless of the number
of original ion pairs that initiated the process. Thus, it can
therefore work only as a simple counter of radiation-induced
events. The required operating conditions are normally chosen
by means of recording the Plateau curve under conditions
in which a radiation source generates events at a constant
CONVENCIÓN DE ESTUDIANTES DE CENTROAMÉRICA Y PANAMÁ, CONESCAPAN 2016, GUATEMALA, GUATEMALA. 3

rate. The Plateau curve of the system was generated within a
known radiation field of 50 [µSv/h].
Agency. In this particular case, with the Secondary Standard
Dosimetry Laboratory of Guatemala.
The response of the instrument during the irradiation for
each calculated distance is measured and a calibration factor
is assigned. This is matched with the intrinsic relative error
presented by the device after applying the calibration factor.
See table I.

The irradiator used for the calibration contains a 137 Cs

source with a nominal activity of 740 [Gbq] (or 20 [Ci]),
a field size of 0.15 [m] of diameter at a distance of 0.50[m]
from the geometrical center of the source, and a timer with
0.01 [s] accuracy. The latter being used to preset the irradiation
exposure time.
Expected Lecture obtained Lecture Corrected Lecture I.R.E
H*(10) [µSv/h] [CPM] H*(10) [µSv/h] %
200.0 16485 190.1 4.96
180.0 15188 175.1 2.71
Fig. 4. Full plateau curve of the system made by the G-M tube STS-5, Lot 160.0 13648 157.4 1.65
IX69 and the electronics prototype version 0.3, generated with an ambient 140.0 12016 138.5 1.04
dose rate equivalent of 50 [µSv/h]. 120.0 10980 126.6 -5.50
100.0 9248 106.6 -6.63
80.0 7564 87.2 -9.01
The graph shown in Figure 4 depicts the full plateau curve 60.0 5698 65.7 -9.51
for the system. From the figure 4, it can be inferred that the 50.0 4949 57.1 -14.13
40.0 3955 45.6 -14.00
plateau region stands within the range of 480 - 580 [V ]. For 20.0 2080 24.0 -19.90
the operational voltage, the midpoint of the curve shown in 10.0 981 11.3 -13.13
figure 5 was selected. Hence, the optimal operational voltage 8.0 773 8.9 -11.44
6.0 562 6.5 -8.08
for the system has been chosen to be 535 [V ]. 4.0 403 4.7 -16.29
2.0 182 2.1 -5.04
The rate at witch the number of counts per increasing Maximum natural background, 43 CPM
Calibration
 factor
voltage is expected to change for the tube’s polarization 0.01153 µSv/h

CPM
voltage, i.e. the slope of the trend line in figure 5, is
2.012[Counts/V ].
TABLE I
C ALIBRATION DATA FROM THE S ECONDARY S TANDARD D OSIMETRY
L ABORATORY OF G UATEMALA .

Fig. 5. Plateau region from 480 to 580 [V ], of the system formed by the
G-M tube STS-5, Lot IX69 and the Version 0.3 of the developed prototype.

2) Calibration method: The detector was calibrated using

the methodology of knwon radiation field in terms of ambient
dose rate equivalent in a range from 2 to 200 [µSv/h] for a
137 Fig. 6. Calibration curve for the system formed by the G-M tube STS-5, Lot
Cs beam quality. In order to achieve this, the instrument IX69 and the Version 0.3 of the developed prototype.
under test is placed and aligned in a beam of gamma rays
from a source of 137 Cs calibrated with traceability to a During each measurement a fixed irradiation time of 120 [s]
Secondary Laboratory of the International Atomic Energy was established. This in order to acquire the total number of
CONVENCIÓN DE ESTUDIANTES DE CENTROAMÉRICA Y PANAMÁ, CONESCAPAN 2016, GUATEMALA, GUATEMALA. 4

counts in the aforementioned period and compare it with the • Aged quenching gas is the most feasible candidate to
CPM reading given by the detector’s display, so the electronics explain why plateau voltage was shifted from the original
prototype version 0.3 time accuracy could be measured. See tube’s datasheet specs.
table II. • Time accuracy measurements showed that this parameter
isn’t a significant source of error, being less than 10% of
Total Counts I.R.E
CPM the sensor’s error itself.
2 %
16528 16431 -0.59 • Electronics were originally designed to deliver a stable
15231 15215 -0.11 520 [V] output voltage. However, due to the tubes’
13690 13975 2.04
12059 12315 2.08 plateau voltage shift, they had to be modified to output
11023 10987.5 -0.32 a less accurate, but still effective 640 [V] DC output.
9291 9329.5 0.41
7607 7653.5 0.61
5741 5888 2.49 VI. F URTHER WORK
4992 4985 -0.15
3998 4040 1.05
• Obtain the Plateau curve, and observe its behavior at
2123 2079 -2.10 different dose rates.
1024 1028 0.39 • Design a more flexible high voltage power supply to
816 836 2.39
605 621 2.54
deliver higher voltages to test a bigger set of different
446 452.5 1.38 G-M tubes without compromising DC output accuracy.
225 238 5.46 • Establish the optimal dose rate necessary to calibrate the
G-M tube using the known radiation field technique.
TABLE II • Due to limitations presented by the commercial G-M
T IME MEASUREMENT ACCURACY FOR THE SYSTEM FORMED BY THE G-M
TUBE STS-5, L OT IX69 AND THE V ERSION 0.3 OF THE DEVELOPED
tube, we consider to build a tube of our own capable
PROTOTYPE . to fulfill the requirements as needed.
• Redisign this device to make it compatible to support
a more accurate SiPM detector, so not only dose-rate
can be known, but also a spectral analysis can be im-
IV. P ROJECT DESCRIPTION plementented in real time to determine the isotopes that
act as the sources of the detected radiation levels.
Using a Geiger tube filled with ionizing gas with a high
voltage applied to its terminals, this counter is able to obtain ACKNOWLEDGMENT
the amount of radiation present in its environment. In order to
do so efficiently, the tube must be calibrated. There is a voltage We’d like to thank
region where the tube must lie in order to work efficiently. This • Ligia Aguilar: we wouldn’t be able to test the prototypes

region is known as the ”plateau” region. without her contribution sourcing some important parts.
The main component of the electronics board version 0.3 is • Lic. Diego Gómez, Secondary Standard Dosimetry Lab

the microcontroler. This part controls all the processes being
held internally within the device. It takes care of holding
a stable high-voltage output, and processes the information
deilvered to it by the sensor and shows it as CPM on the LCD
screen. A low-power Texas Instrument’s MSP430 was chosen
for this task due to its simplicity, low-power specifications,
and its many integrated peripherals, allowing for a simplier
PCB design. The main circuits are represented in a block
diagram in Fig. 2.
V. C ONCLUSIONS
Coordinator: for his advice during the calibration tests.
R EFERENCES
[1] F.H Attix, Introduction to Radiological Physics and Radiation Dosimetry,
2nd ed. Germany, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 2004
[2] Unkown Author, STS Geiger Tube Datasheet https://www.tindie.com/
products/atlasatomics/geiger-tube-sts-5-equivalent-to-sbm-20/
[3] Unknown Author, STS Geiger Tube Technical Specs http://www.
pocketmagic.net/tube-sts-5-%D1%81tc-5-geiger-tube/
[4] L. Dieguez, PROCEDIMIENTOS DE CALIBRACIÓN DE INSTUMEN-
TOS MONITORES DE ÁREA EN TÉRMINOS DE DOSIS EQUIVALENTE
AMBIENTAL, H*(10), PARA CAMPOS DE RADIACIÓN GAMA Y X.
Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Guatemala, 1998.
[5] G.F. Knoll, Radiation detection and Measurement, 4th ed.
USA, John Wiley & Sons, 2010.

• During calibration tests, G-M tube dose rate and count

rate relationship was linear, as shown in Fig. 6, which
allows for a simpler regression model, thus reducing
calculation errors and incrementing instrument’s signal
processing response.
• Electronic circuitry was expected to support a dose rate
over 1000 [uSv/h], as it was independently tested in lab.
• During calibration G-M tubes surpassed expected dose
rate detection range, as the datasheet indicates the maxi-
mum value is 30 [uR/s] (100 [uSv/h]), but during calibra-
tion the device had a linear response up to 200 [uSv/h].
CONVENCIÓN DE ESTUDIANTES DE CENTROAMÉRICA Y PANAMÁ, CONESCAPAN 2016, GUATEMALA, GUATEMALA. 5

Iván René Morales was born in 1989 in Guatemala

City. He received the BSc. in Electronics Engineer-
ing from Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala
in 2013. He’s been FPGA Lab Instructor in ICTP
Workshops in Italy and Costa Rica. He was a visiting
scientist at ICTP in 2015 where he developed a
low-cost wireless sensor network architecture for
environmental monitoring. He’s currently the IEEE
Guatemalan Branch Robotics and Automation Soci-
ety (RAS) advisor. His main interests are embedded
systems for instrumentation and low-power hardware
(including wireless sensor networks and portable devices).

Edgar Andrés Monterroso Urrutia was born in

1991 in Guatemala City. He is about to receive
the BSc. In Applied Physics from the Universidad
de San Carlos de Guatemala. He worked at the
Nuclear Regulatory Authority of Guatemala, and
it is currently working at the secondary Standard
Dosimetry Laboratory of Guatemala where he is
in charge of the calibration of radiation protection
equipments. His main interest are the metrology of
ionizing radiation, and nuclear instrumentation.

Silvio Alejandro Urizar Salazar was born in 1992

in Guatemala City. He received the BSc. in Electron-
ics Engineering from Universidad de San Carlos de
Guatemala in 2015, and is currently working on his
Graduation Project for BSc. in Applied Physics. He
has been an Ad-honorem collaborator for developing
projects for the Science and Mathematic’s School
from Universidad de San Carlos. He is currently
the IEEE USAC Student Branch Secretary. His main
interest are robotics, high-precission instrumentation
and astrophysics.