Comparison of analog and digital signal processing systems using pulsers

The magnitude of the random summing effects in gamma spectrometry is evaluated using both an analog signal processing chain and a digital signal processing chain with several hardware settings. Both sets of data are also evaluated for the effectiveness of correcting for these effects with the help of an electronic pulser. There are noticeable peak area effects at count rates as low as a few thousand counts per second. The use of a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) permits accurate determination of peak areas up to count rates of about 30 000 counts per second without a pulser, compared to only a few thousand counts per second for most analog systems. The use of a pulser permits correcting for peak areas up to input count rates of at least 140 000 counts per second using either a DSP system or a traditional analog system with the appropriate setups.