A pulse-height analyzer (PHA) is an instrument that accepts electronic pulses of varying heights from particle and event detectors, digitizes the pulse heights, and saves the number of pulses of each height in registers or channels, thus recording a pulse-height spectrum or pulse-height distribution used for later pulse-height analysis. PHAs are used in nuclear- and elementary-

particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...

research. A PHA is a specific modification to

multichannel analyzer A multichannel analyzer (MCA) is an instrument used in laboratory and field applications to analyze an input signal consisting of voltage pulses. MCAs are used extensively in digitizing various spectroscopy measurements, especially those related t ...

s. A pulse-height analyzer is also integrated into

particle counter A particle counter is used for monitoring and diagnosing particle contamination within specific clean media, including air, water, and chemicals. Particle counters are used to support clean manufacturing practices in a variety of industrial appl ...

s or used as a discrete module to calibrate particle counters.

See also