INTRODUCTION

A timing instrument marks or measures the precise occurrence of nuclear events. In practice, the release of electrons, which result from the detector's absorption of a particle's energy, occurs after the actual event; how long after is dependent upon the detector and how it is employed. The electronics processing this output further modifies its characteristics. All of these factors must be accounted for, in addition to the problem of noise, when making precise and highly resolved timing measurements.

Timing modules provide the nuclear experimenter with a set of measurement tools aimed at precise analysis of the timing intervals between nuclear events. Analysis here is commonly performed on unshaped signals in efforts to resolve subnanosecond relationships, as contrasted with techniques using the outputs of spectroscopy amplifiers through a timing SCA, where resolution is limited to the 1 to 10 nanosecond range. The latter area is commonly termed, "slow timing," to distinguish it from the "fast timing" analysis discussed here.