NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS REPORT

325S

A MULTI-CHANNEL PULSE HEIGHT ANALYZER

USING A CR STORAGE TUBE

by

James A. Cunningham

Radiation Physics Laboratory

Sponsored by

Office of Basic Instrumentation

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Sinclair Weeks, Secretary NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

A. V. Astin, Director

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NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS REPORT

PROJECT MBS REPORT

0412-20-3161 April 1954 3253

A MULTI -CHANNEL PULSE HEIGHT ANALYZER

USING A CR STORAGE TUBE

by

James A, Cunningham

Radiation Physics Laboratory

Sponsored by

Office of Basic Instrumentation

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

The publication, reprli Dari, I# prohibited ,„»« Approved for public release by the

25.D.C, Such permit Director of the National Institute of , ha, been opecincal ly prepared If that Stcindurds 311(1 I echnology (N 1ST) rt for It* own ui£, on October 9, 201 5.
FOREWORD

This report describes a multi-channel pulse height analyzer

developed during an Investigation of the utility of memory devices in

nucleonic instrumentation.

The research on this project was conducted as a part of a program

of research and development in Basic Instrumentation, jointly sponsored

by the Office of Naval Research, the Office of Scientific Research of

ARDC, and the Atomic Energy Commission.

H. ¥. Koch, Chief

Betatron Section
A Multi-channel Pulse Height Analyzer Using a CR Storage Tube

James A . Cunningham

Radiation Physics Laboratory, National Bureau of Standards

Abstract

The pulse height analyzer described in this paper has been designed

for use with pulsed accelerators such as the 5>0 Mev betatron and the

180 Mev synchrotron at the National Bureau of Standards. The analyzer

utilizes the technique of storing the voltage pulses during the short

output duration of the accelerators and then analyzing the information

during the dead time. Pulse heights were converted into time intervals

by means of an ordinary 3KP1 cathode ray tube used as a storing device.

Simple time gates permitted the construction of a relatively compact

multi-channel analyzer.

I . Introduction

Much of the research in nuclear physics involves the measurement of

voltage pulse heights from some detector. Various pulse height analyzers

have been proposed and cons true ted. i/ These pulse height analyzers can

be placed into three general classes: (1) electronic voltage discriminators, (2) electron beam deflection in a cathode ray tube, (3) electronic

sweep comparison methods changing a pulse height into a time interval.

The pulse height analyzer described in this paper uses the combination of

the last two general classifications. It has been designed for use with

pulsed accelerators such as the 50 Mev betatron and the 180 Mev synchrotron at NBS. The analyzer utilizes the technique of storing the voltage

pulses during the short output duration of the accelerators and then

~y

A. B. Van Rennes, Pulse -Amplitude Analysis in Nuclear Research,

Nucleonics 10, No. 7 (1952).
- 2 -

analyzing the information during the dead time. With this technique it

is possible to use simple electronic circuitry, resulting in a relatively

compact unit. Discussed in the following sections of this paper are the

cathode ray tube storage technique as applied to the pulse height analyzer,

the pulse height analyzer circuits and characteristics, and the future application of this storage technique to other nucleonic instruments.

II. Cathode Ray Tube Storage Technique

The operation of the pulse height analyzer can best be explained by

a description of the cathode ray tube storage process. A piece of wire

screen or foil is placed on the face of the CR tube (see fig. l) . This

screen forms one plate of a condenser and the phosphor coating foims the

other plate. Any change in phosphor potential is capacitively coupled

to the foil and an output signal is generated across "R" and fed into an

amplifier. When the electron beam strikes the phosphor surface, a rain

'o3'r secondary electrons is emitted from the phosphor at the beam position,

leaving that spot positively charged. This rain of electrons falls on

the grounded coating and on the surrounding phosphor area, charging it to

a negative potential. The secondary electron emission will continue until

the surface under the beam is charged positive. If a pulse to be analyzed

is applied to a set of deflection plates, the beam is deflected across

the face of the tube and returns to its normal position. The area bombarded by the beam is charged positively with respect to the surrounding

area. If a sweep voltage is applied at a later time to the same set of

deflection plates, the beam is deflected across the same path. As soon as

the beam deflection exceeds that of the original pulse, the beam strikes
- 3

-

an uncharged region of the phosphor, and secondary electrons are again

emitted for the balance of the duration of the reading sweep. Since some

of these electrons fall on the grounded coating of the tube, the average

potential of the phosphor becomes positive, and an output signal is

generated across "R". The time at which this output is generated after

the start of the sweep is proportional to the peak voltage of the original

pulse. The pulse that is originally recorded can be called the writing

sweepf and the sweep that removes the information can be called the reading

sweep. The writing sweep can be of a very short duration (3 milli-microseconds or greater) and the reading sweep can be of a relatively long

duration (e.g., 1,000 /usee). If two or more writing sweeps are applied

to the storage tube, they will create several phosphor discontinuities.

When the reading sweep is applied, each discontinuity will produce an

output pulse. The time of occurrence of each output pulse is proportional

to the input pulse height. The output pulses occur during the interval

from 0 to 1,000 ;usec after the start of the sweep, and are distributed

into appropriate time channels. Each of these time channels can be calibrated in terms of the original voltage pulse heights

III. Pulse Height Analyzer Circuits

The circuits involved in this multichannel pulse height analyzer

are mostly conventional. Except for the storage tube and the scaler

(which employ Philips decade counter tubes), they consist of ordinary

amplifiers, cathode followers, one shot multi-vibrators, and a pulse peak

detector.
- a -

The operation of the analyzer can be explained briefly with the aid

of a block diagram (fig. 2). The pulse to be analyzed is applied to a

set of deflection plates of the cathode ray tube. A trigger pulsed is

sent into two delay trigger circuits that supply secondary trigger pulses

after fixed delays. One secondary trigger pulse starts the reading sweep

generator, which is applied to the same set of deflection plates, and it

also starts the multivibrators that supply the time gates. The other

secoridaiy trigger pulse starts a gate pulse for the output amplifier. This

gate is necessary to eliminate the pickup from the original pulse and the

unwanted pulses at the start and end of the reading sweep.

The output signal is taken from the wire screen on the face of the

CR tube and fed into an amplifier. From there the signal goes through a

gating tube that also amplifies the pulse and sends it into a peak detector.

The peak detector is a circuit designed to give a sharp pulse at the peak

of a broader input pulse. This sharp pulse is amplified and fed through a

cathode follower giving a low Impedance output. The time gate channels

used were a series of multivibrators triggered in sequence. Each multivibrator output is sent to a gating circuit. The output of the peak detector

is fed to all of the gating circuits in parallel and only that gate which

When the analyzer is used with the betatron, the trigger pulse used

is the ejection pulse that precedes the X-ray burst by a few microseconds. When random pulses are analyzed a gate precedes the storage

tube, allowing only a few pulses to enter the storage tube before the reading sweep is applied. The "trigger-in", under these circumstances, can be

the same trigger that starts the gate.
- £

-

is open when the pulse arrives passes the pulse to its respective scaler.

The scaler unit is based on the Philips tube decade scaler. 3/

IV. Characteristics

1. Resolution of the Storage Tube and Detecting Circuitry

The resolution of the pulse height analyzer can be defined as the

ratio of the uncertainty in the pulse height measurement to the maximum

pulse height that can be analyzed. The resolution of this pulse height

analyzer Is determined by the storage tube, the peak detector, and the

time gates.

Since the time of the output signal of the storage tube occurs as

a smoothly varying function of the pulse height, the resolution of the CR

tube can be determined by observing the time duration of the output signal.

The expected output signal rise time depends upon the speed of the reading

sweep, the sharpness of the reading sweep beam, and the sharpness of the

phosphor potential discontinuity. The phosphor potential discontinuity is

created by the edge of the primary electron beam; and^ therefore, It depends

on the sharpness of the beam. Assuming that the beam spot size is of the

order 0.020" f (reading sweep in In./psec) , then with the II4OO jasec 2 in.

sweep used, the rise time should be approximately II4 yusec. The decay time

of the output pulse is determined by the coupling RC time constant. The

capacity between the phosphor and the foil is approximately 20 ppf and the

n R" is 1 meg, so the decay time will be about 20 jusec. Figure 3 shows the

output pulse on a 200 yisec time base, which appears to be about Li.0 yisec

— Philips Research Report 81-111 (April 195>2)»
- 6 -

out of a lliOO psec reading sweep. This compares favorably with the sum

of the rise and fall time expected, which is about 35 psec.

Detection of the output signal by a pulse height discriminator was

found to be unsatisfactory. The output signal essentially rides on top

of a background signal created by the irregular phosphor density along

the sweep path. The irregular phosphor density creates a varying amplitude output signal which, if detected by a pulse height discriminator,

would affect the time at which the detecting signal would occur. If the

reading beam should drift, changing the background signal, an error would

be introduced. Errors due to irregular phosphor density are considerably

reduced when the peak detector is used. The output pulses resulting from

phosphor irregularities are of lower amplitude than the signal and are nob

as sharp as the signal. When an input pulse of constant amplitude is fed

into the analyzer, an output signal is observed during a lijOO /isec reading

sweep which varies in time approximately ±1.5 jusec. This gives the

storage tube and peak detector an overall resolution of about .1$. The

window width stability of the CR tube analyzer is determined by the variation of the time output signal divided by the width of the time gates.

The time gates were tested by observing their drift on an oscilloscope and using a random time pulse generator for observing gate widths.

The reproducibility of the number of random pulses in each gate was within

the statistical accuracy of 1 percent.

2. Comparison Test of the Analyzer

The entire analyzer was checked by using a Nal total absorption
- 7 -

spectrometer-^ to examine the spectrum of gamma rays from a Zn^ and

RaD-Be source. The measurements were taken continuously during a fiveday period except for intervals taken to calibrate and test the analyzer

with a precision pulser and sliding pulser. Figure h shows the spectra

of Zn~^ and RaD-Be plotted with an Atomic Instruments model 5>10 single

channel analyzer. The spectra taken with the GR tube analyzer are in

good agreement with those taken with the single channel analyzer. Both

analyzer window widths were set at approximately 0.5 volts. The window

width stability of the CR tube analyzer under the above conditions was

about 5 percent.

During this investigation a 3KP1 CR tube was used and the preceding results were obtained. Recently, however, several tubes^ have

been produced specifically for the storage process used in computers.

These tubes should have many advantages over the ordinary CR tube for

use ivLth this technique.

3. Input Pulse Shape Requirements

Since the pulse to be analyzed is applied to a single set of deflection plates, only the peak of the pulse will form a phosphor potential discontinuity. This means that any previous pulse shaping is not

necessary. Pulses of 3 mgisec duration have been analyzed. It was found

that several pulses could be stored on the face of the tube before a y R. S. Foote and H. W. Koch, Scintillation Spectrometers for Measuring

the Total Energy of X-ray Photons, Rev. Sci. Instr. (195>U), to be

published.

y A. S. Jensen, J. P, Smith, M. H. Mesner, and L. E. Flory, Barrier Grid

Storage Tube and Its Operation, RCA Review 9 , No. 1 ( 19 )48 ).
- 8 -

reading sweep is applied. This enables the analyzer to accept several

pulses during a short X-ray burst, permitting an increase in the rate at

which data can be taken. The unwanted pulses at the beginning of the

reading sweep of the 3KP1 CR tube destroyed the usefulness of approximately

the first 7 percent of the reading sxreep. It was found necessary to

increase the gain of the amplifier preceding the analyzer to examine

pulses that are in the lower 7 percent of a pulse height spectrum.

U. Power Supply Requirements

The output voltage of the CR tube power supply can drift more than

10 percent without a detectable error in the time of the output pulse,

since the deflection sensitivity is the same for the writing sweep as it

is for the reading sweep.

The storing, comparing, and amplifying circuits are equivalent to

those of a normal 3 inch oscilloscope (see fig. 5>) • There are several

methods for recording the time pulses by different circuitry. The counting

rate one expects will determine the amount of circuitry. If one expects

a slow counting rate (20 counts per minute)^ then a gated scaler and printer

can be used. If the gated scaler counts at a 100 k cycle rate and a

reading sweep of 1,000 jisec is used, the pulse heights will be divided

into 100 channels

.

For the higher counting rates expected from experiments with the

NBS accelerators (about 180 pulses per sec) a conventional set of time

gates was constructed, adjustable in time occurrence and width, providing

eight channels that could be set to any voltage level and window width.

Work is now being done on applying a beam switching tube^/ to greatly

reduce the circuitry of the time gates used.

^/Electronic Design, Vol. II, No. 1 (Jan.l95>U). Tubes are produced by

Burroughs Electronic Instrument Division.
- 9 -

V . Applieati ons

lo Use with Radioactive Sources

When the analyzer was used to examine a spectrum of a source emitting particles at random times it was preceded by a gate. The gate can

be opened allowing a few pulses to enter the storage tube and then be

closed during the reading sweep. When the information is recorded and the

sweep returns to its normal position the gate can be reopened and the series

of operations repeated. The gating circuit!/ used was of the difference

amplifier type passing pulse heights from 0.5 volt to h volts linearly.

2. Future Applications

During the development of the pulse height analyzer, it became

evident that this principle could be applied to other nucleonic instrumentation problems. For example, it would be possible to record on the CR

tube a number of pulses that occur during an extremely short time and to

count them with conventional scalers during the reading sweep. This would

be useful in the measurement of very short half lives or in time -of-flight

experiments. The waveforms are indicated in figure 6.

If the sweep voltage of figure 6a is applied to the horizontal

plates of a storage tube, and the voltage pulses to be counted are applied

to the vertical plates, as shown in figure 6b, the pulses will be stored

on the CR tube, as shown in figure 6c. During the retrace of the writing

sweep, which lasts about 1000 jusec, the beam scans from right to left along

the same base line. As the beam crosses the discontinuities of the phosphor

potential created at the base of the voltage pulses, output pulses are

created on the 1000 jusec sweep (fig. 6d)

7/ Linear Gate Circuit for Pulse Height Analysis by P.R. Chagnon.

P.R. Chagnon, Rev. Sci. Instr. 25, p. 990 (1953).
- 10

The above process is equivalent to the storage of a series of

pulses that occur during a 1 psec duration and then expanding them on a

longer time base. This technique permits the measurement of the information

in a conventional manner with relatively slow circuitry.

VI. Conclusion

The principle of quick storage and leisurely analysis of data as

described above permits the use of simple electronic equipment for some of

the difficult problems of nucleonics instrumentation.

VII. Acknowledgment

The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance and discussions

held with members of the Nucleonics Instrumentation and the Electronic

Computor Sections of the National Bureau of Standards.
CATHODE

RAY

STORAGE

TUBE

Figure

1.

Cross-section

ofa

CR

tube

used

asa

memory

device,

illustrating

a

method

of

removing

pulse

height

and

time

information

from

deflected

beam.
Figure 2 . Block diagram of CR tube pulse height analyser.
h200 150 50

4-

0

TIME

1 100

MICROSECONDS o>

Figure 3. Output signal from CR tube pickup plate. This also shows

the type of background from a tube.
COUNTS

/

UNIT

BIN

Figure R, A comparison of the gamma ray spectra of Zn and RaD-Be sources measured with a single channel analyzer and a CR tube pulse height analyzer.
AMPLIFIER

GATE

PEAK

DETECTOR

tipure

Circuit

diagram

of

the

delayed

trigger,

reading

sweep,

amplifiers,

and

peak

detector

of

the

CR

tube

pulse

height

analyzer.
FI G. 6 a

! fl

FIG, 6b

SWEEP ON CR TUBE FACE

FIG. 6c

>UTPU‘ PULSES OF PEAK DETECTOR ON IOOO sec TIME BASE

FIG. 6 d

re 6. The waveforms applied to and generated from the CE tube when

sed as a fast scaler.
THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

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