Performance Evaluation of FPGA-based Standalone, Portable TDCR System

The liquid scintillation counting based triple to double coincidence ratio (TDCR) method is a widely employed, direct activity determination technique to standardize pure beta emitters. An “FPGA-based standalone, portable TDCR system” is developed for absolute activity measurement of pure beta-emitting radionuclides. The system has a local 7″ touchscreen display to provide an intuitive GUI for operating the standalone instrument. The portable system will boost the capabilities of users in the field by providing a reference measurement method of radionuclide metrology. In nuclear medicine, the portable system will enable them to calibrate short-lived radionuclides within the dose-administering facility and avoid transporting radioactive sources to standardizing laboratories. The system’s performance is evaluated by comparing the activity determination results of ¹⁴C, ²⁰⁴Tl and ¹⁴⁷Pm radionuclides with the ones from the CIEMAT/NIST method. The comparison shows that the activity measurement results from the system are closely aligned with those obtained using the CIEMAT/NIST method within the uncertainty limits. In this paper, the system’s performance evaluation is presented.