Four-Deep Charge-Time and Pulse-Width Scaling Discriminator for Delay Line MWPC's

A discriminator has been developed for digitizing both intercepted total charge and location of electromagnetic shower and particle trajectories in multiwire proportional chambers read by delay lines. Determination of shower trajectory is aided by video signal integration followed by centroid-locating discrimination. Calibrated run-down of the signal integrating capacitor gives the charge information above a given threshold level. The discriminator is designed to handle up to four shower-induced video signals per event by incorporating steering circuits within the module. Each video signal is examined for time over an adjustable threshold. Video pulses with separation of less than 20 nsec are treated as a single pulse. Counter-logic circuits indicate the number of video signals digitized. These signal processing circuits provide a first level of data sifting which otherwise must be carried out with additional discriminator channels and added complexity in data recognition.