CANBERRA offers a large family of automatic and manually-controlled low background alpha/beta (and, optionally gamma) counters. The majority of the systems use gas flow proportional technology and originated as the industry-leading brand. Over the years, these systems have been enhanced, and the family has grown to include the new iSeries of gasless alpha/beta counters.

The manual alpha/beta systems can count one to sixteen samples at the same time, while the automatic systems can accommodate batches of 50 or 100 samples. Like the alpha and gamma spectroscopy systems described elsewhere on this site, these counters are designed for unattended operation once the samples are in place and acquisition has begun.

Besides the numbers of samples that can be counted at once or in batches, there is also flexibility in detector size and type to support various sample diameters and counting technologies. The most prevalent gas flow detector active diameter is 5.7 cm (2.25"). However, available detector sizes range from 3.2 cm (1.25") up to 12.7 cm (5.0") for large air filters. Other detector options include NaI for gamma, Zinc Sulfide for alpha, and Geiger Muller for combined alpha, beta and gamma. The iSeries systems are unique in that they include durable 2000 mm² PIPS™ detectors and need no counting gas at all. These systems also employ a radon-thoron compensation algorithm to effectively eliminate the isotopes' interference with other isotopes of interest in the same energy range. The iSolo is the first of the iSeries alpha/beta counters.

The final major differentiating feature of the systems is the user interface. Systems such as the Series 5 XLB, Series 5 LB5500 and LB4100 are operated via a computer. They use the powerful Eclipse or Apex-Alpha/Beta software packages for operation, data reduction and quality assurance. The Series 5E, Series 5 APC, and iSolo systems are operated from the front panel console. This presents a simple user interface for operation, and LB-Link or iLink software is available for downloading and analysis of data via computer.