The high energy experiment PDS (=phoswich detection system) on board the X-ray astronomy satellite SAX

The high-energy (15-300 keV) experiment PDS is one of the four narrow-field instruments on board the Italian-Dutch SAX satellite. The PDS detector is composed of four actively shielded NaI(Tl)/CsI(Na) phoswich scintillators and has a field of view of 1.4 degrees (FWHM). The total geometric area is 795 cm/sup 2/. The authors present a description of the instrument and its development status with particular emphasis on the performance of the pulse shape analysis electronics. >