Patent · US Expired

Apparatus and a method for measuring the activity of radioactive samples containing a multiple of radioactive isotopes

US5134294A · kind A · utility

7Cited by
6References
2Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 6, 1991
Grant dateJul 28, 1992
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 6, 2011

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01T1/204
  • WIPO fieldEnvironmental technology
  • WIPO sectorChemistry

Abstract

Liquid scintillation counter includes a memory having stored spectra of known counting efficiencies and known levels of quench, for the isotopes to be meansured. A device extracts from the spectra, using the determined quench level value for each of the N isotopes, a reference spectrum representing a pure isotope spectrum at the determined quench level. A device determines for each extracted reference spectrum a factor by which the extracted reference spectrum is to be multiplied in order to fit the sum of the multiplied reference spectra to the sample spectrum. Each factor is directly related to the amount of each isotope in the sample. A method for use in a liquid scintillation counter includes, first extracting, from stored spectra of known counting efficiencies and known levels of quench for each of the N isotopes, a reference spectrum representing a pure isotope spectrum at the determined quench level and second, determining, for each extracted reference spectrum, a factor by which the extracted reference spectrum is to be multiplied in order to fit the sum of the multiplied reference spectra to the amount of each isotope in the sample.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.