Comparison of Arduino Nano and Due processors for time-based data acquisition for low-cost mobile radiation detection system

• Published in: Journal of instrumentation 2022-03, Vol.17 (3), p.P03015
• Main Authors: Lee, J., Lee, M.S., Jang, M., Lim, J.-M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Data acquisition concepts; Gamma detectors (scintillators, CZT, HPGe, HgI etc); Instruments for environmental monitoring, food control and medical use; Low cost; Microcontrollers; Photon detectors for UV, visible and IR photons (solid-state) (PIN diodes, APDs, Si-PMTs, G-APDs, CCDs, EBCCDs, EMCCDs, CMOS imagers, etc); Processors; Radiation; Signal processing
• ISSN: 1748-0221; 1748-0221
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-0221/17/03/P03015

Arduino is an open-source hardware and software platform that consists of a single-board microcontroller (MCU). Arduino offers low-cost and low-power operation, which allows the design of a mobile battery-operated device and offers easy programming with a wide range of compatible sensors. Hence, Arduino has recently been widely used as an inexpensive solution to build educational and evaluation tools. Here, we combined Arduino processors with custom-developed time-based signal readout electronics for a low-cost mobile radiation detection system; the system utilizes a time-over-threshold technique that provides compact electronics. Arduino processors were used for chip configuration, serial communication, and real-time data acquisition. In this study, we tested two commercial Arduino processors, Nano and Due, in various signal environments and compared their performances. The developed Arduino-based data acquisition system was combined with a 48 × 48 × 20 mm 3 GAGG:Ce (Gd 3 Al 2 Ga 3 O 12 :Ce) scintillation crystal and an 8 × 8 array of 6 × 6 mm 2 SiPM. The developed low-cost mobile gamma detection system achieved 9.35% energy resolution at 662 keV and was able to acquire events up to 600 Hz using an Arduino Nano.