A FPGA based time analyser for stochastic methods in experimental physics

Abstract

A two-channel time analyser data acquisition system is developed for analysis of stochastic processes of random time interval pulses. The system is implemented on a typical low cost FPGA device. Two stochastic processes of nuclear interactions can be recorded by the system independently without any inter-channel dead time behaviour. The experimental results without any hardware based data reduction are transferred to the computer to perform arbitrary post analysis of the data using powerful software engineering tools to estimate the statistical properties of the processes. The performance of the system is verified experimentally. The maximum time digitization period and the minimum channel dead time are measured equal to 3.3 and 10 ns, respectively, using a typical prototype hardware platform. A brief description about theory of Rossi-α diagnostic method (a type of zero power reactor noise analysis) is initiated in the text as an application of the system. The method is applied to multiplying and non-multiplying media using the proposed measuring system.