Development of the portable alpha-ray spectrometer based on the PIPS detector

In order to maintain the needs of determining radiation contamination in-situ rapidly, we established a kind of portable alpha-ray spectrometer based on the PIPS detector. The instrument employs PIPS detector to capture α-ray, signals are collected and disposed by preamplifier circuit and the signal acquisition module, then spectra analysis is achieved by C8051F120 MCU control platform. Man-machine interface was organized by matrix keyboard and LCD display. Both lithium-ion batteries and power processing module were used to supply the system power. We designed a vacuum measurement chamber in order to obtain higher energy resolution and cleaner spectra. By performance testing we get that the whole power consumption of this instrument is 105 mA, energy resolution is 8.1% in normal air environment and 6.7% in vacuum. The instrument has high -precision, good stability, low power consumption, and is very suitable for in-situ measuring. (authors)