Digital Multi-Channel analyzer for detection and analysis of radiation in nuclear spectroscopy

Abstract

Radiation caused by radiation sources due to ionization in the form of alpha, beta, gamma, X-ray and neutron radiations is harmful to human health. Multi-Channel Analyzers (MCAs) are incorporated in nuclear instruments for various applications like Isotope identifiers, Alpha/Gamma spectroscopy and liquid scintillators etc., that demand wide resolutions. Analog signal which is detected by the detector from radiation source is converted into digital using Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC). Trapezoidal shaping is done by the Digital Signal Processor (DSP) using the proposed algorithms. This work targets the design and implementation of Digital Multi Channel Analyzer implemented on FPGA that can be used in nuclear spectroscopy instruments. The MCA system is designed by using trapezoidal recursive algorithm with the help of Lower Level Discriminator (LLD) and Upper Level Discriminator (ULD) detection using peak detection. The height of the pulse is the proportional to the energy of the particle which is used for peak detection. The peak detection data is counted, and histograms are generated for data analysis. This system is designed and realized by using Verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL) with low power and high profile SmartFusion2 FPGA SoC that can be used in nuclear spectroscopy instruments. The peak detection and counting are done by the modules developed using Hardware Description language (HDL) aiming the target device to be the Smart Fusion 2 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) which has in-built Digital Signal Processor (DSP).