On the Design of Filters for Pulse-Height and Time Analysis

This paper describes a new approach to the analysis and optimization of the signal to noise ratio for pulse-height and time-interval analysis. Using a generalized model of linear measurement systems, the real transfer characteristic and noise behaviour of all system units can be taken into account. The objective function SNR for the optimization by means of computer aided design considers 1/f noise sources as well as constraints in the time domain for minimum pile-up error. Beyond time-invariant systems, a class of time-variant containing a gated integrator can be evaluated. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated by some implemented systems which are chosen from a given filter catalog.