Title :
A specific multi-channel photon-counting unit for air-pollution measurement
Author :
Papageorgas, P. ; Maroulis, D. ; Karkanis, S.I. ; Theofanous, N.I. ; Winter, H. ; Albrecht, H.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Inf., Athens Univ., Greece
Abstract :
A photon-counting system based on an appropriate microcontroller has been developed. This system controls, acquires, processes and stores the data from a high-resolution multi-channel gas analyzer and provides accurate photon-counting measurements using suitable Photomultiplier Tubes (PMTs) as detectors of the Raman scattering signals. The implemented system ensures low power consumption (90 W for the overall system), low cost, increased reliability and high sensitivity. Also the entire unit allows auto-calibration and drift compensation. Finally, the present photon-counting system can be used in a broad field of applications, in medical electronics (e.g. confocal microscopy), air pollution optical measurements, laser sounding of the atmosphere, and electrooptical systems, provided that PMTs are used in the pulse-counting mode
Keywords :
Raman spectroscopy; air pollution measurement; counting circuits; gas sensors; photomultipliers; photon counting; physical instrumentation control; 90 W; PMT; Raman scattering signals; air pollution optical measurement; air-pollution measurement; auto-calibration; confocal microscopy; discriminator; drift compensation; high-resolution multi-channel gas analyzer; laser sounding; medical electronics; microcontroller; multi-channel photon-counting; photomultiplier tubes; photon-counting measurements; portable instrument; power consumption; preamplifier; pulse-counting mode; reliability; Atmospheric measurements; Control systems; Microcontrollers; Optical control; Optical microscopy; Pollution measurement; Power system reliability; Process control; Pulse measurements; Signal analysis;
Conference_Titel :
Electronics, Circuits and Systems, 1999. Proceedings of ICECS '99. The 6th IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Pafos
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-5682-9
DOI :
10.1109/ICECS.1999.814381
