Multistage delay line memory systems and their application to multi-channel pulse height analyzer featuring short dead time

Abstract

This paper describes memory systems which use two or three ultrasonic delay lines of the same bit rate to decrease the dead time of the Hutchinson-Scarrot type pulse height analyzer. Ingenious channel allocation in the long delay line for the main store enables the periodic transfer of the counts from the short delay line used as temporary store, and this transfer technique can be extended to the system with three delay lines. The counting loss of each channel in these systems including the loss by overflow in the temporary store is calculated as a function of channel concentration factor (relative input counting rate to the channel), α i . The system with two delay lines has a reduced dead time of about one tenth of that in the conventional system. The dead time is further reduced by a factor 2 in the system with three delay lines. The experimental model with two magnetostrictive delay lines proves the feasibility of the system.