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Giga-sample Pulse Acquisition and Digital Processing for Photomultiplier Detectors

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Abstract

Digital Pulse Processing offers multiple advantages over traditional analogue processing chains. As a disadvantage, produce gigabytes of data every second. Storing and processing such data rates in real-time still remains a challenge. Analogue solutions are not riddled with this issue, however, they offer limited flexibility and modifiability. This work highlights the advantages of Digital Pulse Processing over Analogue Pulse Processing and describes a successful implementation of a digital pulse detection and acquisition system based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays. The system is tasked with processing pulses generated by a Photo Multiplier Tube nuclear detector. Incoming signals are sampled at a 1 GS/s rate, so to enable full acquisition resolution, throughput is reduced with digital detection filters and leading-edge triggering or with a derivative zero-crossing detector. Three different fast timing filters are adapted to high-speed real-time acquisition and compared in a simulated scenario. A trapezoidal filter is implemented in firmware alongside the detection channel for pulse height analysis. Thanks to the use of reprogrammable devices, the system remains versatile and can be remotely adapted to different needs with no additional hardware costs.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium, funded by the European Union via the Euratom Research and Training Programme (Grant Agreement No 101052200—EUROfusion). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them. This scientific paper has been published as part of the international project called ’PMW’, co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education within the framework of the scientific financial resources for 2021 under the contract No W3/HEU—EURATOM/2022.

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  1. Department of Microelectronics and Computer Science, Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, Poland

    W. Walewski, P. Nowak vel Nowakowski & D. Makowski

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  1. W. Walewski
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Correspondence to W. Walewski.

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Walewski, W., Nowak vel Nowakowski, P. & Makowski, D. Giga-sample Pulse Acquisition and Digital Processing for Photomultiplier Detectors. J Fusion Energ 41, 8 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10894-022-00320-0

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