Device for Measuring Radionuclide Activity by Digital Coincidence Counting

Abstract

We describe the development of a device for absolute activity measurements using the 4π (α, β)-γ coincidence technique. A Caen N6720 high-speed analog-to-digital converter (digitizer) was used to allow software to be substituted for the complex hardware components of such devices and simulate a coincidence channel in computer memory. This digitizer enabled us to substantially simplify the digital coincidence channel in the device. We studied the characteristics of the resulting device. The accuracy of radionuclide activity measurement was verified by comparison with the GET 6-95 primary State reference unit of radionuclide activity. The activity measurement results obtained with this device were found to be highly consistent with those obtained using the GET 6-95.