A new approach for pulse amplitude measurement using Lagrange’s interpolation for radiation or particle detectors

In radiation detector signal processing, usually, the charge-sensitive preamplifier converts the small charge signal coming from the semiconductor-based detector into voltage form and then the signal is further amplified to measure the energy of the incoming radiation. The voltage pulse from a charge-sensitive preamplifier (CSPA) is amplified using a shaping amplifier which reduces the signal bandwidth. To achieve better energy resolution, precise measurement of the peak amplitude of shaping amplifier output is required. The signal processing methods are available in which the signal from the charge-sensitive preamplifier can be directly digitized using high-speed Analog to Digital Converters (ADC), and then further signal processing such as gain and shaping is carried out inside the Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). For multiple detector systems, digital signal processing methods are quite difficult to implement in Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). In this context, The development of an alternative technique is initiated that uses a charge-sensitive preamplifier, shaping amplifier, low sampling analog-to-digital converter, and FPGA, where LaGrange’s interpolation technique is implemented in FPGA to precisely measure the peak of the analog pulse. In this paper, the comparison of the proposed method with other pulse amplitude measurement techniques is discussed. Results show that the implemented technique gives similar energy resolution compared to digital pulse processing and standard peak detector-based techniques.     

A power and thermal management system for long endurance hypersonic vehicle

Due to the pneumatic heating and combustion effect, the scramjet engine of hypersonic vehicle faces high temperature challenge. It is necessary to comprehensively consider its thermal management and power generation together. A new Power and Thermal Management System (PTMS) combined with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (SCO₂) closed Brayton cycle and fuel vapor turbine is proposed and discussed in this paper. The new PTMS can meet the cooling requirement of hypersonic vehicle at Mach number 6–7, and avoid the coking and scrapping in the scramjet cooling channels. Compared with the PTMS only based on fuel vapor turbine, the new PTMS utilizes the waste heat of scramjet to generate more electricity. In addition, it can reduce the use of fuel sink for cooling, and the additional weight penalty can be compensated for long endurance hypersonic flight.