Introduction

Device with different layout of the detectors and related interconnections around a single body, coupled with a special algorithm to calculate the coordinates of the massa center that is, the exact position of a beam of particles that have an electric charge, in a cross section of the tube or chamber in which it is propagating. It works through direct digital measures, avoiding the analog-digital conversion.

Technical features

This device is based on a method that employs capacitive detectors or antennae, whose signal is not used as direct measure of the position (analog reading), but only as proximity or non-proximity indicator (two state digital reading). The actual position of the beam is estimated by an original algorithm from an high number of detectors around the transit section. This improves the signal/noise ratio while conditioning electronic circuits become simpler and cheaper. This function is useful for directing the beam onto a final target (for example in biomedical applications or for controlled ion deposition), or for making it pass to a specific point (i.e. collimating it) at the input of some other apparatus (used in mass spectrometry). TRL 2

Possible Applications

• Nuclear medicine;
• Ion deposition/implant

Advantages

• Modularity;
• Programmable resolution;
• High signal/noise ratio;
• Simple construction;
• Cost-effective construction