Fast electronics for scintillation counter systems in space experiments
Abstract
Fast coincidence and analog electronics have been developed to process signals from the scintillation and Cerenkov detectors of the triggering telescope, which forms part of the COS-B experiment for gamma ray astronomy. Design requirements and solutions for the electronics are presented, and the performance is discussed. Integrated circuits have been used extensively in order to minimize the number of components, hence volume and weight, and to optimize the reliability. The goals of a time resolution down to 3 nsec for a dynamic range of 1 to 30, a signal processing time of 200 nsec for timing and 500 nsec for analog analysis, a maximum temperature instability of the trigger thresholds of 2% of the typical signal amplitude over a range of 50 deg C and a maximum nonlinearity of 1% of full scale for the pulse height analysis have been achieved.
- Publication:
-
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
- Pub Date:
- February 1975
- DOI:
- 10.1109/TNS.1975.4327708
- Bibcode:
- 1975ITNS...22..587A
- Keywords:
-
- Cerenkov Counters;
- Satellite-Borne Instruments;
- Scintillation Counters;
- Signal Processing;
- Time Signals;
- X Ray Astronomy;
- Analog Circuits;
- Circuit Reliability;
- Coincidence Circuits;
- Cos-B Satellite;
- Gamma Rays;
- Integrated Circuits;
- Spaceborne Astronomy;
- Spacecraft Electronic Equipment;
- Thermal Stability;
- Weight Reduction;
- Instrumentation and Photography