Abstract:
It has long been recognized that there is a loss in time conversion when Wilkinson's analog to digital converter (ADC) is used in converting nuclear pulse height analog to digital signal (ADC) in a multi-channel analyzer (MCA). This results in loss of counts during radiation measurement. Hence, there is a need to find an alternative technique for constant time conversion ADC especially in the case of high counting rate. It was suggested that the successive approximation and flash type ADC may be applied to use in MCA with constant time conversion. This research has thus developed two 10-bit nuclear pulse height ADCs using a successive approximation IC (PM-7572) with conversion time of 5 ms and a flash type IC (MP-7685) to work with input signal processor and logic control circuits. Both ADCs performances were benchmarked against the Wilkinson's ADC with 50 MHz frequency of a MCA (Tracor Northern 1706) using an identical control signal circuit. Performance tests revealed that the non-linearity of the successive approximation and the Wilkinson ADCs was found to be 1.722% and 0.397%, respectively. The response to radiation counting of the successive approximation ADC displays linearity up to 60 kcps independent of the pulse height. The flash type ADC, however, was found to consume too much current and high input signal requiring very complicated and expensive circuits; thus making it uneconomically viable.