VIVEKANAND EDUCATION SOCIETY’S INSTITUTE OF

TECHNOLOGY
Collectors’ Colony, Chembur, Mumbai 400074

PROJECT REPORT

ON

Simulation of Pulse Height Analyzer in LabVIEW

Submitted by:

Yash Mehta

Rahul Rawat

Ronak Sani

Chinmay Tari

Under the guidance of

Mrs. Kanchan Chavan

(in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Bachelor of Engineering)

In

INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

VIVEKANAND EDUCATION SOCIETY'S

INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

2014 – 2015
 CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL

This is to certify that project report on

Simulation of Pulse Height Analyzer in LabVIEW

Submitted by

YASH MEHTA

RAHUL RAWAT

RONAK SANI

CHINMAY TARI

Is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Degree of Bachelor of Engineering in

"INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEERING"

In

University of Mumbai

Date:

Mrs. Kanchan Chavan

(Project Guide)

Mr. P.P. Vaidya Examiner

(H.O.D.)

Dr. (Mrs.) J.M. Nair

(Principal)
 Acknowledgment
It gives us immense pleasure in bringing out this synopsis of the project entitled
“Simulation of Pulse Height Analyzer in LabVIEW”.

First and foremost, we would like to thank to our guide, Mrs. Kanchan Chavan, Professor,
Department of Instrumentation Engineering, VESIT for the valuable guidance and advice she
gave us which inspired us greatly to work on this project. She has been instrumental in the
development of various skills and values while guiding us through this project.

We would like to thank our Principal Dr.(Mrs). J. M. Nair & the Head of the Department
Prof. Dr. P.P.Vaidya for allowing us to do this project and also the Staff and Management of
the Vivekanand Education Society’s Institute of Technology for providing their cooperation
without which it would not have been possible to complete the work in time and successfully.

We would also like to thank our friends & family for their technical as well as moral
support.

Project Team
Table of Contents
1 Abstract...................................................................................................................................1

2 Gamma Ray Spectroscopy:.....................................................................................................2

2.1 Pulse Height Spectra....................................................................................................2

3 Principle and Hardware Setup:................................................................................................5

13.1 Principle.....................................................................................................................5

3.2 Radiation Source:.........................................................................................................7

3.3 Scintillator Detectors....................................................................................................8

3.3.1 Scintillator detector principle:...........................................................................8

3.3.2 Energy Resolution of a Detector.......................................................................9

3.3.3 NaI(TI) Scintillator............................................................................................9

3.3.4 Characteristics of NaI(TI)...............................................................................12

3.3.5 Light collection and scintillator mounting......................................................13

3.3.6 Scintillation Detectors with Integrally Mounted PMT....................................13

3.4 Photo multiplier tube..................................................................................................15

3.5 Preamplifier:...............................................................................................................18

3.5.1 Model NETS-0 – Preamplifier........................................................................20

3.5.2 Current Sensitive Amplifier............................................................................21

3.6 Amplifiers...................................................................................................................22

3.6.1 Amplification and Pulse-Shaping Functions...................................................22

4 Pulse-Height Analyzer..........................................................................................................24

4.1 Basic Functions..........................................................................................................24

5 Differential Discriminator (Single-Channel Analyzer).........................................................26

5.1 SCA Used:..................................................................................................................27

6 Pulse Processing:...................................................................................................................29

7 Why Software?......................................................................................................................30

7.1 LabVIEW...................................................................................................................30

7.2 PC side implementation:............................................................................................30

7.2.1 VISA................................................................................................................31

7.2.2 LIFA................................................................................................................31

8 Data Acquisition:...................................................................................................................32

8.1 Arduino UNO.............................................................................................................32

9 LabVIEW Code:....................................................................................................................33

9.1 Code Validation..........................................................................................................34

10 Result:..................................................................................................................................35

10.1 Observation:.............................................................................................................35

10.2 Program Statistics:....................................................................................................36

10.2.1 Memory Requirements:.................................................................................36

10.2.2 Timing and Buffer allocation details:............................................................36

10.2.3 Resulting Spectrum:......................................................................................37

10.2.4 Integral and Differential Spectrum:...............................................................38

11 Future Scope:.......................................................................................................................39

12 Bibliography........................................................................................................................40
1 Abstract
Nuclear Radiation Spectroscopy is an expensive business, requiring sophisticated technology
and trained personnel to carry out the process. One of the most integral and complex piece of
technology in this scheme is the Pulse Height Analyzer that is in the broad sense available in
two flavors i.e. the Single Channel Analyzer (SCA) and the Multi-Channel Analyzer (MCA).
At the rudimentary level its task is to discriminate radiation pulses on the basis of the voltage
level and in the process of doing so obtain the energy spectrum of the sample under
observation.

Our primary objective was to significantly bring down the cost required in procuring these
instruments. We therefore contemplated on the idea of replacing the Hardware based SCA or
MCA and provide a self-sustained Software solution.

We decided on LabVIEW as a platform to implement our project because of its simplicity of

use, and in even prototyping as such a rather complex piece of code. For data acquisition
purpose we have made use of the Arduino Uno version R3 to bring the real time signals
obtained from the detector and related peripherals to a computer for further processing and
analyses. Our code can function both in the threshold as well as window mode and can also
function as an MCA with certain constrains on the bin size.

The front panel of the application is user friendly, intuitive and also provides access to
information like the Integral and the Differential spectrum along with the pulse height
amplitude and the time of arrival stored in a format that is native to the LabVIEW
environment only, thus inherently providing to some extent security to the data collected.

1
2 Gamma Ray Spectroscopy:
Gamma-ray spectroscopy is the quantitative study of the energy spectra of gamma-ray
sources, in such as the nuclear industry, geochemical investigation, and astrophysics.

Most radioactive sources produce gamma rays, which are of various energies and intensities.
When these emissions are detected and analyzed with a spectroscopy system, a gamma-ray
energy spectrum can be produced.

A detailed analysis of this spectrum is typically used to determine the identity and quantity of
gamma emitters present in a gamma source, and is a vital tool in radiometric assay. The
gamma spectrum is characteristic of the gamma-emitting nuclides contained in the source,
just as in optical spectroscopy, the optical spectrum is characteristic of the material contained
in a sample.

2.1 Pulse Height Spectra

When operating a radiation detector in pulse mode, each individual pulse amplitude carries
important information regarding the charge generated by that particular radiation interaction
in the detector. If we examine a large number of such pulses, their amplitudes will not all be
the same. Variations may be due either to differences in the radiation energy or to
fluctuations in the inherent response of the detector to mono energetic radiation. The pulse
amplitude distribution is a fundamental property of the detector output that is routinely used
to deduce information about the incident radiation or the operation of the detector itself.

The most common way of displaying pulse amplitude information is through the differential
pulse height distribution. Figure below gives a hypothetical distribution for purposes of
example. The abscissa is a linear pulse amplitude scale that runs from zero to a value larger
than the amplitude of any pulse observed from the source. The ordinate is the differential
number dN of pulses observed with an amplitude within the differential amplitude increment
dH, divided by that increment, or dN / dH. The horizontal scale then has units of pulse

2
3 Bibliography
I. Radiation Detection and Measurement Glenn F. Knoll
II. www.ni.com › Products & Services
III. Physics in Nuclear Medicine, 4th Edition By Simon R. Cherry, PhD, James A. Sorenson,
PhD and Michael E. Phelps, PhD
IV. https://www.wikipedia.org/