GBS Elektronik MCA166-USB Behavior at different Temperatures - Manual (Page 8)

8. Conclusions
-The temperature drift of the MCA166 is a complex oscillating function of the gain setting. Positive as well as
negative values for the drift are found.
-A positive aspect of this complicated behavior may be that it is possible to find a point with almost no gain drift
by varying the gain in a range of only +/- 30%.
-The MCA166 temperature drift gets important when doing optimum resolution germanium detector
spectrometry. With CdZnTe- and NaI-detectors, the temperature drift of the detectors will dominate.
-The thermal drift time constant of the MCA166 is about half an hour. If the measurement time is short compared
to this thermal time constant, then resolution will not degrade by drift, but it may be necessary to redo the energy
calibration. For long time measurements with best resolution it is recommended to switch on MCA and detector
a few hours before starting the measurement.
-Peak stabilization can do in some applications a great job of drift compensation, especially when stabilisation
parameter settings are optimized.
-The MCA166 works principally also at temperatures much deeper (-40°C) than specified; the primary limit is
the battery performance at low temperatures.
[1] A. Wolf, FZR, private communication
[2] Alexander Braun, diploma thesis, dated 16.9.2000; Hochschule für Technik, Wirtschaft und Sozialwesen
Zittau/Görlitz (FH) and JRC Ispra.
GBS -Elektronik GmbH, Bautzner Landstr. 22,
01454 Großerkmannsdorf / b. Dresden
Tel.: (0351) 217007-0 Fax: (0351) 217007-21
homepage: http://www.gbs-elektronik.de/
email: [email protected]