Design & Analysis of Mixed-mode Integrated Circuit for Pulse-shape Discrimination

<p>In nuclear science experiments it is usually necessary to determine the type of radiation, its energy and direction with considerable accuracy. The detection of neutrons and discriminating them from gamma rays is particularly difficult. A popular method of doing so is to measure characteristics intrinsic to the pulse shape of each radiation type in order to perform pulse-shape discrimination (PSD).</p> <p>Historically, PSD capable systems have been designed with two approaches in mind: specialized analog circuitry, or digital signal processing (DSP). In this work we propose a PSD capable circuit topology using techniques from both the analog and DSP domains. We call this circuit topology a mixed-mode PSD system. We model this mixed-mode PSD system using Verilog-A and simulate its performance using Cadence Spectre with real detector waveform data as the input. We show that our mixed-mode PSD system is capable of discriminating between neutrons and gamma rays at least as well as state of the art DSP based systems while offering some of the advantages of both analog based and DSP based systems.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science & Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2022

Author dc:creator

• Orabutt, Bryan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Roger Chamberlain
• Roger Chamberlain Lee Sobotka Ron Cytron

• mixed
• mode
• pulse
• shape
• discrimination
• integrated circuit
• Electronic Devices and Semiconductor Manufacturing
• Engineering
• Nuclear
• Radiochemistry
• Signal Processing
• VLSI and Circuits, Embedded and Hardware Systems

Statement dc:rights

• I have not registered my thesis with the U.S. Copyright Office, and do not intend to.

Language dc:language

English (en)

Identifier

https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/eng_etds/678

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:openscholarship.wustl.edu:eng_etds-1748