Development of FPGA-Based Nuclear Electronics Using NI MyRIO Hardware for Small-Scale Radiation Detector Systems

This study presents advancements in coincidence electronics and a pulse height analyzer (PHA) utilizing commercial field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based hardware for radiation scintillation detectors. The hardware, based on a cost-effective NI myRIO device, integrates an FPGA, ARM Cortex-A9 processor, analog input (AI), digital input and output (DIO), and USB/wireless connectivity with a host computer. LabVIEW codes developed on the LabVIEW platform are implemented in the NI myRIO hardware for seamless integration and interfacing with a computer. The performance of the FPGA-based coincidence electronics is assessed through an experimental setup measuring the gamma-gamma angular distribution of a 22Na radioisotope source. Similarly, the FPGA-based PHA is tested with a CsI(Tl) detector, and its energy resolution is compared to a commercial EASY-MCA 2 K from AMETEK Inc.