TITLE:
A Design Configuration of an FPGA-Based Coincident Spectrometry System
AUTHORS:
Pham Dinh Khang, Nguyen Nhi Dien, Dang Lanh, Nguyen Xuan Hai, Pham Ngoc Tuan, Nguyen Duc Hoa, Nguyen An Son
KEYWORDS:
Digital Signal Processing; FPGA; VHDL
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Analytical Sciences, Methods and Instrumentation,
Vol.3 No.3,
September
18,
2013
ABSTRACT: In the past, most of popular
coincidence spectrometers were normally based on traditional electronics
techniques such as time to amplitude conversion or logic selecting coincidence
unit. They were complicated and it is not convenient for us to use them. This paper
deals with a new design of a contemporary coincidence spectrometer which is
based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) devices via Digital Signal
Processing (DSP) techniques with Hardware Description Language (VHDL). The
outstanding advantage of DSP techniques and FPGA technology is capable of
enhancement of the quality of the experimental measurements for nuclear
radiation. The designed configuration of the traditional system was tested on
the PCI 7811R board of National Instruments while the digital systems were
establishing with FPGA devices. The purpose of this work is referring to the
principle for construction of an FPGA-based system capable of replacing a
conventional system. Therefore, a novel approach for in-house development of
digital techniques is presented. The method for designing the system is
utilization of slow-fast coincidence configurations with two HPGe detectors
obtaining a pair of coincidence events, processing data in DSP algorithms. The
significant and noticeable results are the operating frequency of 80 MHz and
system timestamp window of approximately 10 ns.