Real-time digital signal processor implementation of self-calibrating pulse-shape discriminator for high purity germanium

TL;DR

This paper presents a real-time digital signal processor implementation for pulse-shape discrimination in germanium gamma-ray spectrometers, enabling faster data acquisition without losing analysis accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a hardware-based, real-time pulse-shape analysis method that matches off-line performance, reducing data volume and increasing acquisition speed.

Findings

Real-time DSP matches off-line analysis accuracy.

Reduced data recording improves acquisition rate.

Maintains event characterization benefits.

Abstract

Pulse-shape analysis of the ionization signals from germanium gamma-ray spectrometers is a method for obtaining information that can characterize an event beyond just the total energy deposited in the crystal. However, as typically employed, this method is data-intensive requiring the digitization, transfer, and recording of electronic signals from the spectrometer. A hardware realization of a real-time digital signal processor for implementing a parametric pulse shape is presented. Specifically, a previously developed method for distinguishing between single-site and multi-site gamma-ray interactions is demonstrated in an on-line digital signal processor, compared with the original off-line pulse-shape analysis routine, and shown to have no significant difference. Reduction of the amount of the recorded information per event is shown to translate into higher duty-cycle data acquisition rates while retaining the benefits of additional event characterization from pulse-shape analysis.