System for determining the type of nuclear radiation from detector output pulse shape
AssigneeUniversity of Missouri-Columbia
InventorsWilliam H. Miller, Ronald R. Berliner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A radiation detection system determines the type of nuclear radiation received in a detector by producing a correlation value representative of the statistical cross correlation between the shape of the detector signal and pulse shape data previously stored in memory and characteristic of respective types of radiation. The correlation value is indicative of the type of radiation. The energy of the radiation is determined from the detector signal and is used to produce a spectrum of radiation energies according to radiation type for indicating the nature of the material producing the radiation.
Claims17
An apparatus for determining the presence and type of nuclear radiations comprising:
- detector means for detecting the presence of a nuclear radiation and, in response, for producing a detector signal representative thereof, said detector signal having a shape characteristic of the radiation including the type of radiation;
- and
- signal processing means including means for receiving said detector signal and responsive thereto for determining the type of the radiation, said signal processing means including
- memory means for storing a reference pulse shape digital data set characteristic of a type of radiation,
- means for producing a detector pulse shape digital data set representative of the shape of said detector signal, and
- value producing means for producing a correlation value representative of the statistical cross correlation between said detector pulse shape digital data set and said reference pulse shape digital data set, said correlation value being indicative of whether the nuclear radiation is said type of radiation characterized by said reference pulse shape digital data set.
A method of determining the presence and type of a nuclear radiation comprising:
- in a nuclear radiation detector, detecting the presence of a nuclear radiation and, in response, producing a detector signal representative thereof, said detector signal having a shape characteristic of the radiation including the type of radiation;
- and
- in a signal processor, receiving said detector signal and, in response, determining the type of the radiation, said determining step including the steps of
- storing a reference pulse shape digital data set characteristic of a type of radiation in a memory device,
- producing a detector pulse shape digital data set representative of the shape of said detector signal, and
- producing a correlation value representative of the statistical cross correlation between said detector pulse shape digital data set and said reference pulse shape digital data set, said correlation value being indicative of whether the nuclear radiation is said type of radiation characterized by said reference pulse shape digital data set.
An apparatus for determining the presence and type of nuclear radiations comprising:
- detector means for detecting the presence of a nuclear radiation and, in response, for producing a detector signal representative thereof, said detector signal having a shape characteristic of the radiation including the type of radiation;
- and
- signal processing means including means for receiving said detector signal and responsive thereto for determining the type of the radiation, said signal processing means including
- memory means for storing a reference pulse shape digital data set representative of a reference pulse and characteristic of a type of radiation,
- means for producing a detector pulse shape digital data set representative of the shape of said detector signal, and
- value producing means for producing a value representative of how closely said reference pulse shape digital data set matches said detector pulse shape digital data set, said value being indicative of whether the nuclear radiation is said type of radiation characterized by said reference data set.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.