A New Ultra Small Battery Operated Portable Multi-Channel Analyzer

A newly designed portable multi-channel analyzer (MCA) has been developed at Los Alamos that has much improved physical and performance characteristics over previous designs. Namely, the instrument is very compact (25 cm wide × 14 cm deep × 21 cm high) and has a mass of 4.2 Kg (9.2 lb). The device has 1024 channels and is microprocessor controlled. The instrument has most of the standard features of present laboratory-based pulse height analyzers, including CRT display, region of interest integration, etc. Battery life of the MCA is nearly eight hours, with full charging over night. An accessory case carries a small audio cassette recorder for data storage. The case also contains two different NaI (Tl) detectors. Another case contains a 10% efficient hyperpure germanium (HpGe) detector for very high energy resolution gamuna ray spectroscopy. That detector (commercially available) is portable and can carry enough liquid nitrogen for 10 hours of field use. All necessary electronics to acquire data from the various detectors are located on the detectors themselves. No additional power supplies, NIM equipment, etc., are necessary for field operation.