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PIXIE-4 User’s Manual
V2.69
©
XIA
2015. All rights reserved.
xl
Figure 6.6: A sequence of 3
-ray pulses separated by various intervals to show the origin of
pileup and demonstrate how it is detected by the Pixie-4.
The value V
x
captured will only be a valid measure of the associated
-ray’s energy provided
that the filtered pulse is sufficiently well separated in time from its preceding and succeeding
neighbor pulses so that their peak amplitudes are not distorted by the action of the trapezoidal
filter. That is, if the pulse is not
piled up
. The relevant issues may be understood by reference
to Figure 6.6, which shows 3
-rays arriving separated by various intervals. The fast filter has
a filter length L
f
= 0.1
s and a gap G
f
=0.1
s. The slow filter has L
s
= 1.2
s and G
s
= 0.35
s.
Because the trapezoidal filter is a linear filter, its output for a series of pulses is the linear sum
of its outputs for the individual members in the series. Pileup occurs when the rising edge of
one pulse lies under the peak (specifically the sampling point) of its neighbor. Thus, in Figure
6.6, peaks 1 and 2 are sufficiently well separated so that the leading edge of peak 2 falls after
the peak of pulse 1. Because the trapezoidal filter function is symmetrical, this also means that
pulse 1’s trailing edge also does not fall under the peak of pulse 2. For this to be true, the two
pulses must be separated by at least an interval of L + G. Peaks 2 and 3, which are separated
by less than 1.0
s, are thus seen to pileup in the present example with a 1.2
s rise time.
This leads to an important point: whether pulses suffer slow pileup depends critically on the
rise time of the filter being used. The amount of pileup which occurs at a given average signal
rate will increase with longer rise times.
Because the fast filter rise time is only 0.1
s, these
-ray pulses do not pileup in the fast filter
channel. The Pixie-4 can therefore test for slow channel pileup by measuring the fast filter for
the interval PEAKSEP after a pulse arrival time. If no second pulse occurs in this interval, then
there is no trailing edge pileup and the pulse is validated for acquisition. PEAKSEP is usually
set to a value close to L + G + 1. Pulse 1 passes this test, as shown in Figure 6.6. Pulse 2,
however, fails the PEAKSEP test because pulse 3 follows less than 1.0
s. Notice, by the