MRI: Acquisition of Digital Data Acquisition System for experiments in Nuclear Science

国家超导回旋加速器实验室(NSCL)为分段锗阵列(SEGA)采集和实施的680道数字数据采集系统(DDAS)允许通过对数字化信号的脉冲形状分析来识别SeGA探测器晶体内的伽马射线相互作用的位置。安装了DDAS的探测器的空间分辨率将比目前的模拟电子学至少提高两倍。SEGA光子谱仪是一台价值200万美元的仪器，于2001年投入使用，目前是世界上最大的可操作的高分段高纯度锗探测器阵列，用于快速外来光束的伽马射线能谱。SEGA是密歇根州立大学五名教员及其博士后、研究生和本科生研究的核心，可供所有NSCL用户使用。NSCL外部项目咨询委员会(PAC)批准的所有实验中，大约有一半需要世嘉进行伽马射线探测。参与的学生将接触到最先进的数字技术的新颖和强大的应用，并将有机会发展在信号处理、数据分析和计算机编程方面的技能。随着拟议的DDAS，世嘉阵列将成为世界上第一台用于快速奇异光束光谱分析的数字光子光谱仪，领先于目前正在考虑的其他几项努力，保持NSCL光子光谱学计划目前的世界领先地位。

The acquisition and implementation of a 680-channel Digital DataAcquisition System (DDAS) for the Segmented Germanium Array (SeGA) atthe National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory's (NSCL) allows theidentification of positions of interactions for gamma-rays within SeGAdetector crystals by pulse shape analysis of digitized signals. Spatialresolution in the detectors with the DDAS implemented will be at leastby a factor of two better than that achievable with the current analogelectronics.The SeGA photon spectrometer is a $2M instrument commissioned in 2001,and is currently the world's largest operational highly-segmentedhigh-purity germanium detector array for gamma-ray spectroscopy withfast exotic beams. SeGA is central to the research of five facultymembers, their postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate studentsat Michigan State University and available to all users of the NSCL. Roughly half of all experiments approved by the NSCL's external ProgramAdvisory Committee (PAC) require SeGA for gamma-ray detection. Participating students will be exposed to the novel and potentapplications of the state-of-the-art digital technology and will have anopportunity to develop skills in signal processing, data analysis andcomputer programming.With the proposed DDAS, the SeGA array will be the world's first digitalphoton spectrometer for fast exotic beam spectroscopy, ahead of severalother efforts currently under consideration, preserving the currentworld-leading role of the NSCL's photon spectroscopy program.