Compact high voltage and optocoupled electronics for gas proportional scintillation counters

Compact (less than 2 dm(3)), low weight (less than 1 kg) and low power (les s than 5 W) electronic circuits for large window area (20 cm(2)) Gas Propor tional Scintillation Counters (GPSCs) with ellipsoidal grid have been devel oped for the detection of solar X-rays in balloon born experiments. The ele ctronics consist of amplification stages and modular power supplies. It inc ludes a 6 kV detector supply, that for the sake of compactness and power sa ving has a relatively high ripple (rt 2 V) that does not affect the perform ance of system, since the pulses are optically coupled to ground. Details o f the circuits are given together with the control and data acquisition int erface electronics. X-ray spectra demonstrating the performance of the GPSC and associated electronics are presented.