Sub-nanosecond multi-channel time-to-digital converter for the 2-D position-sensitive neutron detectors at TriCS and AMOR

Abstract

We have developed an ultra-fast multi-channel time-to-digital converter (mC-TDC). The mC-TDC electronics is used to read out the delay-line-based 2-D detectors of the neutron diffractometer and reflectometer TriCS and AMOR, respectively. The high time resolution of the mC-TDC (≈ 145 ps) allows the conversion of the positionsensitive detector signals into accurate 2-D scattering coordinates (≈ 2 × 2 mm 2 ). The mC-TDC also generates lowjitter time-of-flight signals and incorporates an efficient twostage pileup-rejection mechanism. Neutron rates exceeding 100 000 cps can be processed.