A comparison of pulser-based analog and digital spectrometers

We have begun a program of updates to the instruments used by the Radiation Measurements Laboratory at the Idaho National Laboratory. This laboratory supports the Advanced Test Reactor as well as many other programs throughout the INL. The first step in this upgrade is the updating of the gamma-ray spectrometry systems. Currently, these gamma-ray spectrometers use a standard spectroscopy amplifier and a pulser-based ADC. We have performed a series of tests to determine if a digital-signal processor-based system can replace these analog electronics, with little to no loss in performance.