A flame sensor with uniform sensitivity over a large field of view

The sensor is a gas-filled tube of the Geiger-Mueller type, in which an electron emitted from a photocathode is accelerated by an applied electric field to cause ionization of the fill gas. Although the operating principle is not new, this tube differs from others in that the cathode consists of a semitransparent layer of metal on the inside of the cylindrical tube envelope, which is applied by sputtering after filling and sealing. Used as a cathode during sputtering, the anode consists of a pin along the axis of the tube, providing the cylindrical symmetry for uniform wide-angle viewing. The performance of the tube is compared with that of a tube of the same external dimensions, but with more conventional parallel wire electrodes. The counting rate for the sputtered tube was a factor of 10 higher than the conventional tube, due to the larger sensitive cathode area, and uniform over 360° in a plane perpendicular to the tube axis, due to cylindrical symmetry. The counting rate for the sputtered tube was 2000/min in response to a flame 7 ft away burning natural gas at the rate of 138 cm³/min.