A mixed analog-digital pulse spectrometer

This paper presents and discusses some applications and advantages of a hybrid spectrometer system that contains a high performance Pulse-Height Analyzer (PHA) and a Digital Pulse Processor (DPP). This mixed analog-digital system, based on a TMS320C31 Digital Signal Processor (DSP), is implemented in a single board to be hosted in the Personal Computer’s ISA bus. Beyond the independent use of the PHA and the DPP units, their integration allow for additional features to be performed without the need of external equipment. Among those features are pileup rejection, pulse shape discrimination, ballistic deficit correction and the capability to measure the experimental noise in order to optimize the pulse shaping parameters or to correct the pulse heights given by the analog PHA.