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The accurate detection and measurement of radiation is employed in many industries for the non-invasive analysis of material. However at high count rates radiation detectors are susceptible to a phenomenon called pulse pile-up.

Detectors typically release a pulse whenever an X-ray or gamma-ray is detected, with the amplitude of the pulse proportional to energy. Pulse pile-up occurs when a burst of radiation 'arrives' in a short period, and traditional radiation detectors record this as a single large event rather than many smaller ones. This destroys the quality of information that can be derived from the scan as the 'information of interest' is hidden.

Southern Innovation's technology solves the systemic problem of pulse pile-up by decoding, rather than discarding, the data discarded by existing radiation detection systems.

Decoding pulse pile-up in the output of a radiation detector

What this Means

Southern Innovation's technology dramatically improves the efficiency of radiation detection. This improves the quality of data and the rate at which it can be collected. Consequently Southern Innovation's technology offers the prospect of fast, more accurate scanning across a range of industries.

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Learn more about Southern Innovation's novel digital pulse processing technology