Patent ID: 7180055
Filing Date: 2007-02-20
Classification: G01T

Abstract:
1. A nuclear sensor, comprising: a gamma-ray sensor for generating a tail pulse signal in response to a sensed gamma-ray pulse from a gamma-ray-emitting sample; a tail-pulse simulator circuit for generating a plurality of simulated tail pulse signals having at least two different fixed pulse intensities; an analog conditioning circuit for receiving and conditioning at a first time the tail-pulse signal, thereby generating a conditioned tail-pulse signal, and for receiving and conditioning at a second time the plurality of simulated tail pulse signals, thereby generating conditioned simulated tail-pulse signals, the analog conditioning circuit being functionally connected to provide digitized outputs to a computer for the conditioned tail-pulse signal and for the conditioned simulated tail-pulse signals, with the computer processing the conditioned tail-pulse signal to produce a measure of the sensed gamma-ray pulse and processing the conditioned simulated tail-pulse signals to generate a zero offset signal; and a digital control interface functionally connected between the computer and the analog conditioning circuit, with the digital control interface receiving the zero offset signal and using the zero offset signal to set a zero offset in the analog conditioning circuit.