Basic Counting Systems Introduction

For other international representative offices, visit our web site: http://www.canberra.com or contact the CanBerra U.S.a. office. 11/10 Printed in U.S.a. PULSE ELECTRONICS The nuclear electronics industry has standardized the signal definitions, power supply voltages and physical dimensions of basic nuclear instrumentation modules using the nuclear Instrumentation Methods (nIM) standard initiated in the 1960s. This standardization provides users with the ability to interchange modules, and the flexibility to reconfigure or expand nuclear counting systems, as their counting applications change or grow. CanBerra is a leading supplier of nuclear Instrumentation Modules (also called nIM). In the past several years, the industry trend has been to offer modular detector electronics with the multichannel analyzer (MCa) and all supporting instrumentation for spectroscopy with a single detector combined in a compact, stand-alone enclosure. These modular MCas are smaller, lighter and use less power than the nIM-based counting systems that preceded them. However, their performance is equal to, or greater than, comparable nIM-based systems. CanBerra is also a leading supplier of these modular detector electronics. Depending on the application and budget, nIM or modular electronics may be the best counting equipment solution for the user, and CanBerra supports both of these form factors with a wide variety of products.