Sensors, signals and systems for electromagnetic radiation experiments in physics

Abstract: I discuss in this thesis new instrumentation, measurements, and techniques that 1 have worked on that could benefit different stages of the process of detecting electromagnetic radiation and charge particles. The thesis describes a complete generic detector system, from the initial detection stage through the data analysis stage, and where in each stage my work was involved. For the initial detection stage 1 describe my work with liquid noble gas detectors and time projection chambers (TPC). Thescintillation light induced by alpha-particles in liquid Ar doped with Xe is investigated. I distuss measurements made of the attenuation length of the light. I then describe the anode pulse shape and pulse-height spettrum in these detectors and the development of a front end electronics stage to handle such signals.Event-building using Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) packet switching is discussed for use in the data acquisition stage of a very large detector with large data rates. Also, several hardware artificial neural network systems that could be used for the on-line filters, i.e. triggers, in the DAQstage are described.For the off-line data analysis stage, 1 describe work with artificial neural networks and wavelets that could be useful for feature extraction. Here, the hardware neural networks could also accelerate the off-line data processing.