Evaluation of digital pulse processing techniques for a β-γ coincidence counting system.

Signal processing is a core part of any electronic chain for radioactivity measurement systems and can influence measurement results drastically. A thorough study of the different alternatives for this treatment is especially worthwhile when developing a new digital system. This article describes an evaluation performed to optimize the digital pulse processing stage of the β-γ coincidence counting system at the Institute of Radiation Physics (IRA) designated laboratory for the activity unit. This study is a part of IRA's digitalization project to modernize the aging analog electronic hardware of its primary measurement systems. The β-γ coincidence counting system consists of a plastic scintillation detector in the beta channel and a well-type NaI detector in the gamma channel. Six pulse shaping digital filters along with amplitude calculation algorithms were implemented to obtain beta and gamma pulse amplitude values. In addition, four timing digital filters and time pick-off methods were set up to calculate arrival times (timestamps) for the pulses generated by both detectors. Filter parameters and algorithm settings were adjusted to obtain the best performance. Combination of filters into traditional two channel (fast for timing and slow for shaping) or one channel configuration using dCFD (digital constant fraction discrimination) and LE (leading edge) time pick-off methods were also tested and compared to study the whole digital pulse processing system, using both real measurement signals (

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Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.