42
ION Chamber
Detector/Amplifier
Ronan’s ion chamber detector is filled with an
inert
Assembly
high-pressure gas. It uses low-voltage (-
15VDC) bias
and generates a low-level current proportional
to the gamma radiation incident on the
detector. The current
(DET-7471-XXX)
generated is on the order of 10
ρ
A, so an
electrometer amplifier is required to convert
the current to a low-impedance, high level
voltage signal. The signal is then measured by
the X96S Microprocessor, which converts the
voltage signal to a output of 4-20mA for a
specified measuring range.
Refer to drawing B-6409-K. The current (I),
generated
Circuit Description
by the ion chamber, is fed into the inverting
input
terminal of the electrometer amplifieer, (IC1).
The electrometer amplifier output is filtered by
R2C4 (a microphonic, low-pass filter) and fed
into a follower amplifier. The output of IC2 is
proportionally fed back to the inverting
terminal to provide a closed-loop gain based on
the value of the gain resistance potentionmeter
(R2) on the X96S input board. (B-9742-K).
The detector’s gain is adjusted whenever the
signal output of the detector is too high and
may saturate the input of the X96S, which is
approximately 3.5VDC. The output must be
less than 3.0VDC with an empty vessel.
An offset zero control (R6), used to null the
offset voltage of the electrometer amplifier, is
factory adjusted and glyptal coated. R6 is
adjusted to make the output, (TP1), zero with
Rf shorted. (TP2 is circuit common.)
Reference:
B-6409-K
B-9742-K