Nuclear Electronics

Oscilloscope

displays signal as voltage vs time

Tail Pulse Generator (Pulser)

simulates detector output, generates detector tail pulse

Preamplifier

determines the capacitance loading on a detector, minimizes capacitance to amplifier and boosts signal to be transmitted down to cables

Linear Amplifier

provide amplitude gain and carry out pulse shape

Single Channel Analyzer (SCA)

analyzes signal one channel at a time

Counter/Timer

counts logic pulses either with preset time or preset counts

Multichannel Analyzer (MCA)

typically pulse spectroscopy system

Logic Pulse

only answers yes/no question

Linear Pulse

contains rad info in pulse shape and/or pulse height

Upper Level Discriminator (ULD)

upper limit cutoff for detection

Lower Level Discriminator (LLD)

lower limit cutoff for detection, will be the upper limit for the previous channel

Nuclear Instrument Module (NIM)

standard in nuclear electronics adopted by the AEC in 1968

BNC

signal cables

MHV

bias cable

SHV

bias cable

Internal triggering

set level

External triggering

only look for pulse after laser pulse

Voltage sensitive preamplifier

with scintillation detector

Charge sensitive preamplifier

everything else (big for alpha spec and HPGe)

Primary purpose of linear amplifier

provide amplitude gain and carry out pulse shape

Secondary purpose of linear amplifier

pile-up rejection and baseline restoration

SCA as Integral Discriminator

just a limit of detection

SCA as Differential Discriminator

upper and lower limits of detection

MCA operation vs Stacked SCAs