A fast digital timing and analysis system based on real-time dCFD technique for nuclear physics experiments

In this paper a fast digital real-time spectrometer was developed for timing and analysis of nuclear pulse signals.The hardware system design and algorithm implementation with field-programming gate array(FPGA) and digital signal processor(DSP) were introduced.The performance of the digital constant fraction discrimination(dCFD) platform was experimentally tested with Agilent 80 MHz function/arbitrary waveform generator and LaCl 3:Ce 3+ scintillator detector for 22 Na positron annihilation gamma spectroscopy.The amplitude and time information of photon was online obtained.The energy resolution could be 5.525% and the timing resolution 293.75 ps,the system error estimation of dCFD approach was also studied.The results showed that this spectrometer achieved a timing resolution close to that of traditional CFD timing resolution with a more simplified system structure.

In this paper a fast digital real-time spectrometer was developed for timing and analysis of nuclear pulse signals. The hardware system design and algorithm implementation with field-programming gate array （FPGA） and digital signal processor （DSP） were introduced. The performance of the digital constant fraction discrimination （dCFD） platform was experimentally tested with Agilent 80 MHz function/arbitrary waveform generator and LaC13：Ce3＋ scintillator detector for 22Na positron annihilation gamma spectroscopy. The amplitude and time information of ＂/photon was online obtained. The energy resolution could be 5.525% and the timing resolution 293.75 ps, the system error estimation of dCFD approach was also studied. The results showed that this spectrometer achieved a timing resolution close to that of traditional CFD timing resolution with a more sim- plified system structure.