Method and apparatus for neutron detection
AssigneeThe Science and Technology Facilities Council
InventorsSimon Philip Platt, Xiao Xiao Cai
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Abstract
Embodiments of the present invention provide a neutron spectrometry system, comprising a plurality of semiconductor detector portions arranged in close proximity, wherein the detector portions are arranged in at least two non-parallel axes, wherein each detector portion is arranged to output a detection signal indicative of energy deposited in the detector portion by ionising particles induced in the device by incident neutrons, and a control unit arranged to receive the plurality of detection signals, and to allocate detection signals to one or more of a plurality of channels based on a number of substantially coincident detection signals for determining a spectrum of incident neutrons based thereon.
Claims19
A neutron spectrometry system, comprising:
- a plurality of semiconductor detector portions arranged in at least two non-parallel axes, wherein each of the plurality of detector portions is configured to output a respective detection signal indicative of energy deposited in the respective detector portion by ionising particles induced in the detector portion by incident neutrons;
- and
- a control unit configured to receive the detection signals from the plurality of detector portions and configured to allocate the received detection signals to one or more of a plurality of channels based on a number of detection signals at least partially temporally coincident for determining a spectrum of incident neutrons based thereon, wherein the control unit is configured to allocate a detection signal output by a single detector portion of the plurality of detector portions having no temporally coincidence with the signals of the other detector portions to a first detection channel, to allocate detection signals output at least partly simultaneously by two detector portions of the plurality of detector portions to a second detector channel, and to allocate detection signals output at least partly simultaneously by three detector portions of the plurality of detector portions to a third detector channel.
A method of determining a neutron spectrum, comprising:
- receiving detection signals from a plurality of semiconductor detector portions in response to neutron-induced ionising particles depositing energy in the semiconductor detector portions, wherein the plurality of semiconductor detector portions are arranged in at least two non-parallel axes;
- determining a channel allocation of the detection signals based on a number of at least partially temporally coincident detection signals, wherein a detection signal output by a single detector portion of the plurality of detector portions having no temporally coincidence with the signals of the other detector portions is allocated to a first detection channel, detection signals output at least partly simultaneously by two detector portions of the plurality of detector portions are allocated to a second detector channel, and detection signals output at least partly simultaneously by three detector portions of the plurality of detector portions are allocated to a third detector channel;
- and
- unfolding an energy spectrum of the neutrons based upon the channel allocations.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.