The PASERO Project: parallel and serial readout systems for gas proportional synchrotron radiation X-ray detectors

A project aiming at producing more efficient position sensitive gas proport ional detectors and readout systems is presented. An area detector with red uced electrode spacing and a spatial resolution of 0.5 mm. and two time to digital convertors (TDC) based on ASICs were produced. The first TDC. inten ded for use with linear detectors. relies on time to space conversion. wher eas the second one, for area detectors, uses a ring oscillator with a phase locked loop. A parallel readout system for multi-anode detectors aiming at a maximum count rate extensively uses RISC microcontrollers. An electronic simulator of linear detectors built for test purposes and a mechanical cho pper used for attenuation of the X-ray beam are also briefly described. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.