Title :
A very low-cost portable multichannel analyzer
Author :
Cardoso, João M. ; Amorim, Vitor ; Bastos, Rui ; Madeira, Rui ; Simões, J. Basilio ; Correia, Carlos M B A
Author_Institution :
Dept. de Fisica, Coimbra Univ., Portugal
Abstract :
A very, low-cost portable Multichannel Analyzer (MCA) built with off-the-shelf commercial components is presented. Built around an universal microcontroller based platform for portable instruments, previously developed in our group, this intelligent portable MCA is operated by multicell Li-ion batteries and has power and memory autonomy for several hours of spectra collecting. The MCA integrates a basic front-end pulse shape amplifier, a base line restorer, a peak detector and logic control circuitry. The growing of the radiation spectrum can be easily observed on site through a dot-matrix graphic display. To save the acquired data and allow for the configuration of setup parameters, it connects to any host computer through standard USB, IrDA or RS-232 serial interfaces being also prepared to interface a GPS unit. Software application programs in both the portable MCA and the host PC are presented
Keywords :
analogue-digital conversion; biomedical electronics; data acquisition; high energy physics instrumentation computing; logic circuits; microcontrollers; peak detectors; portable instruments; pulse height analysers; pulse shaping circuits; GPS unit; IrDA; Li; MCA; RS-232; USB; base line restorer; commercial components; data acquisition; dot-matrix graphic display; front-end pulse shape amplifier; host computer; intelligent portable multichannel analyser; logic control circuitry; memory autonomy; multicell lithium-ion batteries; peak detector; portable instruments; radiation spectrum; serial interfaces; software application programs; universal microcontroller; Batteries; Computer graphics; Detectors; Instruments; Logic circuits; Microcontrollers; Pulse amplifiers; Pulse circuits; Pulse shaping methods; Shape control;
Conference_Titel :
Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, 2000 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Lyon
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-6503-8
DOI :
10.1109/NSSMIC.2000.949961
