Digital pulse-shape analyzer based on fast sampling of an integrated charge pulse

A novel configuration for pulse-shape analysis and discrimination has been developed. The current pulse from the detector is sent to a gated integrator and then sampled by a flash analog-to-digital converter(ADC). The sampled data are processed digitally, thus allowing implementation of a near-optimum weighting function and elimination some of the instabilities associated with the gated integrator. The analyzer incorporates pileup rejection circuit that reduces the pileup effects at high counting rates. The system was tested using a liquid scintillator. Figures of merit for neutron-gamma pulse-shape discrimination were found to be: 0.78 for 25 keV (electron equivalent energy) and 3.5 for 500 keV