Multichannel Analyzers Multichannel Analyzers (MCAs) are the workhorse instruments in many scientific measurements; in research, teaching, and

industry; for both nuclear and non-nuclear applications. The MCA, in simplest form, analyses a stream of voltage pulses and sorts them into a histogram or spectrum of number of events versus pulse-height which may often relate to energy or time of arrival. The stored spectrum may then be displayed and analysed.

Principle and Procedure Its operation is based on the principle of converting an analog signal (the pulse amplitude) to an equivalent digital number. Once this conversion has been accomplished, the extensive technology available for the storage and display of digital information can be brought to bear on the problem of recording pulse height spectra. As a result, the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is a key element in determining the performance characteristics of the analyzer. The output of the ADC is stored in a computer-type memory, which has as many addressable locations as the maximum number of channels into which the recorded spectrum can be subdivided. The number of memory locations is usually made a power of 2, with memories of 256-8192 channels being common choices. The maximum content of any one memory location ranges up to 224 - 1, or about 16.8 x 106, counts. The basic function of the MCA involves only the ADC and the memory.

Working of a Multi Channel Analyzer

For the purposes of illustration, we imagine the memory to be arranged as a vertical stack of addressable locations, ranging from the first address (or channel number 1) at the bottom through the maximum location number (say, 1024) at the top. Once a pulse has been processed by the ADC, the analyzer control circuits seek out the memory location corresponding to the digitized amplitude stored in the address register, and the content of that location is incremented by one count. The net effect of this operation can be thought of as one in which the pulse to be analyzed passes through the ADC and is sorted into a memory location that corresponds most closely to its amplitude. Neglecting dead time, each input pulse increments an appropriate memory location by one count, and therefore the total accumulated number of counts over all memory is simply the total number of pulses presented to the analyzer during the measurement period. The analogue signal is then processed in a pulse processing electronic chain. This typically consists of an amplifier, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a multi-channel-analyser (MCA) that produces the gamma spectrum. Finally, the spectrum is analysed in a PC using specialised software, performing peak fitting, background subtraction, peak intensity calculation, external or intrinsic calibration and calculation of the relative isotopic abundance. A plot of the content of each channel versus the channel number will be the representation of the differential pulse height distribution of the input pulses. Applications of Multi Channel Analyzer

Gamma ray spectroscopy X-ray spectroscopy Single photon counting Half life and decay studies

--- Case study of Application of MCA Gamma spectroscopy A gamma spectroscopy system consists of a detector, electronics to collect and process the signals produced by the detector, and a computer with processing software to generate, display, and store the spectrum. Other components, such as rate meters and peak position stabilizers, may also be included. The voltage pulse produced by the detector (or by the photomultiplier in a scintillation detector) is shaped by a multichannel analyzer (MCA). The multichannel analyzer takes the very small voltage signal produced by the detector,and converts that signal into a digital signal. An analogto-digital converter (ADC) also sorts the pulses by their height. ADCs have specific numbers of "bins" into which the pulses can be sorted; these bins represent the channels in the spectrum. The number of channels can be changed in most modern gamma spectroscopy systems by modifying software or hardware settings. The number of channels is typically a power of two; common values include 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, or 16384 channels. The multichannel analyzer output is sent to a computer, which stores, displays, and analyzes the data. MCA is useful for gamma ray spectroscopy in the following areas... Isotope research Nuclear reactors Accelerators Universities Other R&D High count rate systems (with a typical dead time of 7 us maximum) Health physics instrumentation and other applications with lower resolution detectors like Na-I-PMT