Multiparameter Multichannel Analyzers / Questions and Answers

Is it possible to do time-of-flight measurements using MPA-3 with RTC by acquiring an ADC spectra for a time window and starting the time by a chopper signal?

You have to sort the ADCs into the "Coinc. with any" group. Now enter the "RTC.." dialog by clicking the correspondig button in the "Coincidence Definition" dialog. Here you have to check "Timestamp in datastream". A  preset has to be defined, that is in any case longer than your time spectra, also if you are not using it as a "preset". (The reason is, that the time is reset by the "Preset Load" signal to the preset value and then is running backwards to zero.) As "Preset Load Mode" the connector has to be defined, where you connect the chopper signal, i.e. the start signal for the time spectra, for example AUX2. I would set "Timer Run when" to "ON". As "Count Source" select "20 MHz", i.e. the internal clock. Let "Time Capture" at "OR-ed DEAD (DOR)", i.e. every ADC that is checked at "ORed DEAD of ADC" can enter a time stamp by the edge of its deadtime signal. Now inspect in the "Auxiliary Connectors" dialog the polarity of the AUX2 connector (when connecting the chopper signal there). "Pol. active LOW" means, that the time is started with the falling edge of a TTL signal (for rising edge select "Pol. active HIGH").

Now you can define time spectra ADC versus RTC. Go into the "Spectra" dialog and click "Add Time...". For the x-axis choose Time and "RTC (50 ns)" , for the y-axis for example as parameter ADC1A with Range "1". Set a reasonable value for the time range and "Time Bin size", for example a range of 4096 with time bin size 50 ns means a length of 205 µsec for the time spectra. The spectra is one-dimensional in this case (due to ADC-Range = 1), but you can also define two-dimensional spectra using an ADC range > 1. Now define a time window in that time spectra by spanning an ROI, and define a condition for that time window: In the "spectra" dialog is a button "Conditions" to enter the corresponding dialog. Here cklick "Add", choose "RTC x 1A" as parameter and select the ROI defined before. You may also define a name for the condition and eventually the ROI or let the automatically defined name.

So you can now define a new ADC spectra (in the spectra dialog, "Add Calc. ...", "Copy = left", "ADC1A") and set the condition for the chosen time window on it.

Multiparameter Multichannel Analyzers