TDC Based on FPGA of Boron-Coated MWPC for Thermal Neutron Detection

Abstract

In order to deal with the international problem of shortage of ³He, a new type of boron-coated Multi-wire Proportional Chamber (MWPC) thermal neutron detector is developed. Readout electronics for this MWPC detector, which can achieve good position resolution, is introduced in this paper. Delay line readout method [1] is used for precisely measuring the hit location of neutron. Furthermore, the time difference between two ends of this delay line is precisely measured with a Time Digital Converter (TDC) based on Field Programming Gate Array (FPGA) and read out through an Ethernet port. Lab test shows that the position resolution contributed by readout electronics is better than 0.2 mm with dead time about 550 ns. Joint test with MWPC detector shows that the integral position resolution is better than 1 mm.