ASEDRA & ACHIP

Radiation detectors are used every day in numerous applications, including medical imaging, oil well logging and safety inspections. Scintillation radiation detectors have proven quite useful; but for the past 50 years, they have been limited by poor spectral resolution until recent developments by HSW Technologies (HSW Tech).

Cutting-edge Computation. ASEDRA, or “Advanced Synthetically Enhanced Detector Resolution Algorithm” developed by HSW Tech yields a significant leap forward in post-processing algorithms (Patent Pending).  Our approach is straight forward and leads to accurate results—we apply a post-processing algorithm to attribute the complete spectrum from attributed to individual photopeaks separately from the integrated radiation spectrum output from a detector. This is performed in a manner that renders highly accurate signatures (resolved photopeaks), which can then be aliased to nuclides of interest for positive identification using a nuclide identification tool (QuickID).

An All-Encompassing Algorithm. The ASEDRA algorithm incorporates a novel denoising algorithm based on an adaptive Chi-square methodology also developed by HSW Tech called ACHIP (Patent Pending), which stands for “Adaptive Chi-Square Processed denoising.” Application of ACHIP is necessary to rapidly remove stochastic noise, particularly from low count spectra, yet preserve fine detail. Following noise removal, ASEDRA sequentially employs a detector response algorithm to reveal specific gamma lines that compose the spectrum.

 

  NaI(Tl) (2”x2”) spectrum output post-processed from
ASEDRA, 16 grams of WGPu, 10 min count, 1 meter
range. ASEDRA shows identification of  key lower
energy WGPu lines found by HPGe. ASEDRA
identifies major WGPu/Am lines (344, 375, 414,
59.5, 662 keV) to within 1% of known values for
most peaks.

Bringing a Multitude of Benefits

  • Augments and improves a synthetic detector peak post-processing algorithm
  • Rapid, effective noise reduction without loss of resolution, and can be automatically applied where needed
  • Removes stochastic noise to the greatest extent without disturbing spectral detail or introducing false features
  • Processes (in seconds) ordinary NaI spectra to yield high resolution gammas with no a-priori information other than pre-computed Detector Response Functions
  • Synthetically improves spectrum resolution by a factor of between
    4 and 6
  • Achieves higher data resolution through post processing in ‘poor resolution’ room temperature scintillators
  • Can be applied to any detector material

Ultimately, recognition in the scientific and operational communities of radiation detection for ACHIP and ASEDRA could readily create a long-term and unique market share for any company or companies that capture the licenses for these unique code systems, with integration into their detector systems. Below is a list of possible applications: