ECE laboratory in the Vinča institute: Its basic characteristics and fundamentals of electrochemic etching on polycarbonate

Abstract

This paper deals with the introductory aspects of the Electrochemical Etching Laboratory installed at the VINČA Institute in the year 2003. The main purpose of the laboratory is its field application for radon and thoron large-scale survey using passive radon/thoron UFO type detectors. Since the etching techniques together with the laboratory equipment were transferred from the National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, Japan, it was necessary for both etching conditions to be confirmed and to be checked up^ i. e., bulk etching speeds of chemical etching and electrochemical etching in the VINCA Electrochemical Etching Laboratory itself. Beside this initial step, other concerns were taken into consideration in this preliminary experimental phase such as the following: the measurable energy range of the polycarbonate film, background etch pit density of the film and its standard deviation and reproducibility of the response to alpha particles for different sets of etchings.

Keywords

• electrochemical etching
• radon
• thoron
• polycarbonate film
• bulk etching rate