Southern Innovation International Pty Ltd

Christopher Charles McLean

Paul Andrew Basil Scoullar

Shane Michael Tonissen

Syed Khusro Saleem

Paul Scoullar

Robin John Evans

Michael Pauley

Brendan Allman

Jonathan Huntley Manton

Andi Chow

Jonathan Manton

Nir Drabkin

A method of determining a spectrum of energies of individual quanta of radiation received in a radiation detector is disclosed. Spectrum sensitive statistics are computed from a time series of digital observations from the radiation detector, defining a mapping from a density of amplitudes of the pulses to the spectrum sensitive statistics. The spectrum is determined by estimating the density of amplitudes of the pulses by applying an inversion of the mapping to the spectrum sensitive statistics. The statistics may be based on a first set of nonoverlapping time intervals of constant length L at least as long as a duration of the pulses without regard to entirety of clusters of the pulses; and a second set of nonoverlapping time intervals of constant length L1 less than L also without regard to entirety of clusters of the pulses. A method of estimating count rate is also disclosed.

Radiation detection with non-parametric decompounding of pulse pile-up

A material characterization system and method for characterizing a stream of material emanating from a material identification, exploration, extraction or processing activity, the system including a source of incident radiation configured to irradiate the stream of material in an irradiation region, one or more detectors adapted to detect radiation emanating from within or passing through the stream of material as a result of the irradiation by the incident radiation and thereby produce a detection signal, and one or more digital processors configured to process the detection signal to characterise the stream of material, wherein the source of incident radiation and the one or more detectors are adapted to be disposed relative to the stream of material so as to irradiate the stream of material and detect the radiation emanating from within or passing through the stream as the stream passes through the irradiation region.

System and method for material characterization

The invention provides a system and method for characterising at least part of a material comprising: a source of incident X-rays () configured to irradiate at least part of the material; one or more detectors () adapted to detect radiation emanating from within or passing through the material as a result of the irradiation by the incident radiation () and thereby produce a detection signal (); and one or more digital processors (--) configured to process the detection signal () to characterise at least part of the material; wherein the one or more detectors () and one or more digital processors (--) are configured to characterise at least part of the material by performing energy resolved photon counting X-ray transmission spectroscopy analysis.

The invention provides a method of estimating an input count rate of a radiation pulse detector from a detector signal where some individual signal pulses making up the detector signal are closely spaced in time less than a minimum reliable detection gap. In one aspect, the individual signal pulses are detected using a detection algorithm and a plurality of interval start times are defined each interposed with at least one of the detected individual signal pulse arrival times, each interval start time being later by at least the minimum reliable detection gap than a corresponding most recent detected individual signal pulse arrival time. A corresponding plurality of individual signal pulse arrival intervals are calculated between each of the interval start times and a corresponding next detected individual signal pulse arrival time.

Input count rate estimation in radiation pulse detectors

A method and apparatus for resolving individual signals in detector output data are disclosed. One inventive aspect includes a processing circuit configured to receive detector output data wherein the detector output data may be stepped data or non-stepped data; transform the detector output data to produce stepped data wherein the detector output data is received as non-stepped data; detect at least one signal at least partially based on the stepped data; and estimate a parameter associated with the signal, wherein estimating the parameter may preferably comprise estimating a signal energy or signal time of arrival associated with the signal.

Method and apparatus for resolving signals in data

Provided are a material characterization system and method for characterizing a stream of material emanating from a material identification, exploration, extraction or processing activity, the system including: a source of incident radiation configured to irradiate the stream of material in an irradiation region, one or more detectors configured to detect radiation emanating from within or passing through the stream of material as a result of the irradiation by the incident radiation and thereby produce a detection signal, and one or more digital processors configured to process the detection signal to characterize the stream of material. The source of incident radiation and the one or more detectors are configured to be disposed relative to the stream of material so as to irradiate the stream of material and detect the radiation emanating from within or passing through the stream as the stream passes through the irradiation region.

A device and method for material characterization are provided. In one aspect, the method includes detecting packets of radiation emanating from within or passing through one or more items of freight or baggage as a result of irradiation by incident radiation, using a plurality of detectors, each of the detectors being configured to produce an electrical pulse caused by the detected packets having a characteristic size or shape dependent on an energy of the packets. The method further includes processing each of the electrical pulses using one or more digital processors to determine the characteristic size or shape, generating a screening detector energy spectrum for each of the detectors of the energies of the packets detected, and measuring an effective atomic number Z of an unknown material associated with the one or more items of freight or baggage based on the screening detector energy spectra in comparison with calibration measurements.

Device and method for material characterization

The invention provides a device () for screening one or more items () of freight or baggage for one or more types of target material, the device comprising: a source () of incident radiation () configured to irradiate the one or more items (); a plurality of detectors () adapted to detect packets of radiation () emanating from within or passing through the one or more items () as a result of the irradiation by the incident radiation (), each detector being configured to produce an electrical pulse () caused by the detected packets having a characteristic size or shape dependent on an energy of the packets; one or more digital processors () configured to process each electrical pulse to determine the characteristic size or shape and to thereby generate a detector energy spectrum for each detector of the energies of the packets detected, and characterize a material associated with the one or more items based on the energy spectrum.

A method for locating a pulse in detector output data, comprising fitting one or more functions to the detector output data; and determining a location and an amplitude of a peak of said pulse from said one or more functions. The one or more functions may be are a function of time.

Method and apparatus for identifying pulses in detector output data

A method and apparatus for borehole logging, the method comprising collecting detector output data from a radiation detector of a borehole logging tool, and resolving individual signals in the detector output data by (i) determining a signal form of signals present in the data, (ii) making parameter estimates of one or more parameters of the signals, wherein the one or more parameters comprise at least a signal temporal position, and (iii) determining the energy of each of the signals from at least the signal form and the parameter estimates. The logging tool is shorter, logging tool speed is greater, dwell time is shorter and/or resolution is improved.

Method and apparatus for borehole logging

A screening method and apparatus, the method comprising irradiating a subject for screening with excitation radiation, collecting detector output data from a radiation detector located near the subject, and resolving individual signals in the detector output data by (i) determining a signal form of signals present in the data, (ii) making parameter estimates of one or more parameters of the signals, wherein the one or more parameters comprise at least a signal temporal position, and (iii) determining the energy of each of the signals from at least the signal form and the parameter estimates. The screening time is shorter, dwell time is shorter, resolution is improved and/or throughput is increased.

Screening method and apparatus

A method and apparatus for resolving individual signals in detector output data, the method comprising obtaining or expressing the detector output data as a digital series, obtaining or determining a signal form of signals present in the data, forming a transformed signal form by transforming the signal form according to a mathematical transform, forming a transformed series by transforming the digital series according to the mathematical transform, the transformed series comprising transformed signals, evaluating a function of at least the transformed series and the transformed signal form and thereby providing a function output, determining at least one parameter of the function output based on a model of the function output, and determining a parameter of the signals from the at least one determined parameter of the function output. The method may include forming the model by modelling the function output.

Method and apparatus for resolving piled-up pulses by using a mathematical transform

An imaging method and apparatus are provided. The method includes collecting detector output data from a radiation detector positioned near a subject provided with a radio-active tracer The method further includes resolving individual signals in the detector output data by determining a signal form of signals present in the data, and making parameter estimates of one or more parameters of the signal. The one or more parameters include at least a signal temporal position. The method further includes determining the energy of each of the signals from at least the signal form and the parameter estimates.

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Kennington, Australia

Christopher Charles McLean