We have developed a compact, inexpensive electronics package that can digitize pulse-mode or current-mode data from 32 detector outputs in parallel. The electronics package consists of two circuit boards: a custom acquisition board and an off-the-shelf processing board. The acquisition board features a custom-designed integrated circuit that contains an array of charge-to-pulse-width converters. The processing board contains a field programmable gate array that digitizes the pulse widths, performs event discrimination, constructs energy histograms, and executes any user-defined software. Together, the two boards cost around $1000. The module can transfer data to a computer or operate entirely as a standalone system. The design achieves 0.20% nonlinearity and 0.18% FWHM precision at full scale. However, the overall performance could be improved with some modifications to the integrated circuit.
Revised: February 25, 2016 |
Published: November 13, 2009
Citation
Myjak M.J., D. Ma, D.J. Robinson, and G.S. La Rue. 2009.Multi-Channel Data Acquisition System for Nuclear Pulse Processing. In IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record (NSS/MIC 2009), October 24 - November 1, 2009, Orlando, Florida, 336-340. Piscataway, New Jersey:Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.PNNL-SA-69553.doi:10.1109/NSSMIC.2009.5401711