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Features

• Full featured portable MCA based on Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technologies
• Unsurpassed temperature stability for consistent, quality operation in adverse environmental conditions
• Accommodates a wide dynamic range of count rates, minimal loss of spectrum resolution
• Low system dead time to reduce count times and improve measurement accuracy
• Wide range of processing time settings to allow precise match to detector characteristics and application requirements
• Ultra small, ultra light weight package
• 10 hour HPGe battery life (12 hour NaI)
• Fast USB and highly optimized RS-232 host interfaces supported
• 16K Channel conversion gain/spectrum memory
• PHA and MCS modes supported
• Digital oscilloscope to assist with setup
• Built-in power up diagnostics

Description

The InSpector™ 2000 is a high performance, portable spectroscopy workstation based on Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technol-ogy. Applications for the InSpector 2000 include all HPGe, NaI and Cd(Zn)Te detector applications common in environmental characterization; nuclear safeguards; decommission-ing and decontamination; and in-facility monitoring. The instrument provides unsurpassed count rate and resolution performance coupled with environmental stability previously seen only in high-end laboratory systems. Package size and battery life set a new standard for field portability and convenience. The host Genie 2000 software environment provides the user with the ultimate flexibility in field operation. A wide range of application specific software options, designed specifically for field spectroscopy, is available under the Genie 2000 family.

The unprecedented performance of the InSpector 2000 derives from the application of DSP technology. Previously limited to laboratory applica-tions due to the high power requirements of the internal components, DSP now gives the field spectroscopist the capability to perform high precision measurements in adverse environmental conditions with a portable instru-ment. Earlier analog spectroscopy systems were prone to count rate and environmental instabilities that required continual adjustment of the signal processing subsystem - and often compromised analysis results. With the InSpector 2000, these problems are dramatically reduced - while portability is significantly improved.

The heart of the InSpector 2000 is the Digital Signal Processor subsystem. Unlike conventional systems, which digitize the signals at the end of the signal processing chain, the InSpector 2000 digitizes the preamplifier sig-nals at the front end of the signal processing chain. This approach minimiz-es the amount of analog circuitry at the front end of the instrument, resulting in increased stability, accuracy and reproducibility.

The use of DSP technology also improves the overall signal acquisition performance. Signal filtering functions previously implemented in tradi-tional analog electronics are limited. DSP allows filtering functions and pulse shapes that are not realizable using conventional analog processing techniques. The result is a more efficient trapezoidal filter function, which exhibits less processing time, less sensitivity to ballistic deficit, and superior resolution. With trapezoidal filtering, the pulses can be processed more rapidly and accurately, so the spectrum resolution is enhanced while throughput is increased.

Performance Benefits for Field Applications
These improvements in signal processing performance provide several tangible benefits to the field spec-troscopist. Most significant for field operation is the significantly improved temperature stability. Important even in temperature controlled laboratory environment - the improved stability becomes far more dramatic in field operations where ambient temperatures may vary as much as +10 °C in the course of a work day. Without temperature stability, the operator is forced into fre-quent QA checks and gain adjustments in order to retain calibrated peak position and quality peak shape. The InSpector 2000 offers peak gain stability in some cases a factor of two to three times better than past generation analog products - even better than lab DSP products. Zero stability is improved even more. Zero drift is barely measurable over the full operating temperature range.

Count rate performance is another potentially signifi-cant issue for the field user. In many nuclear safeguards, or decommissioning and decontamination applications, measurements may be taken in areas ranging from natural background to highly contaminated. Count rate ranges of several orders of magnitude are not uncom-mon. The dynamic range of the DSP based system al-lows such a wide range of count rate to be encountered with minimal shift in peak positioning and minimal peak broadening.

Even when a system is used largely for low activity work, the count rate performance can be significant. Any dead time reduction achieved through faster signal processing can improve measurement sensitivity. One study has demonstrated that the use of DSP at a count rate as low as 3 kcps can reduce count time to achieve a desired MDA by as much as 20% compared to typi-cal analog systems. With the increased use of higher efficiency germanium detectors, more users are seeing higher count rates in natural background – particularly when counting open areas of soil. The presence of any contamination can further raise count rates increasing the possibility of significant dead time.

Traditional analog portable instruments typically are equipped with only two shaping times - due to the physical space required by the components that would be needed to provide more. This limitation means that the user cannot always precisely optimize process-ing time to provide the best performance for a given detector or application requirement - the shaping time limitation requires a compromise. In the InSpector 2000, processing time is controlled digitally by altering the rise/fall and flat top times of the trapezoidal filter. There are 40 rise/fall times and 21 flat top times in the InSpector 2000 - for practical purposes giving the user an "infinite" range of processing time adjustability.

The InSpector 2000 supports both the traditional Pulse Height Analysis (PHA) mode as well as a multichan-nel scaling (MCS) mode for time varying applications. The MCS mode can display data from either an external TTL input, a full spectrum integral or a Region of Interest (ROI). The InSpector 2000 also supports two memory groups (8K per group maximum) with a "ping-pong" memory feature that allows the user to acquire a spectrum into one memory group while reading from a second. Both the ping-pong memory and the MCS mode make the InSpector 2000 ideal for applications involving characterization of a surface or area while the detector is moving.