3.3.2 Digital signal processing (DSP)
The development of microprocessor and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technologies made possible the design of complex processing functions in extremely compact devices. The mass production of electronic gadgets for huge markets lowered the costs of FPGA units and their incorporation into EDXRS spectrometers.
Digital signal processing involves several modules: conditioning of the incoming signal; fast discrimination to determine the arrival of the pulse; assessment of the noise level and; straightforward digitizing of the pulse (in most of the cases following proprietary algorithms) and storage into memory.
The overall signal processing time of DSP systems is of few microseconds. Therefore, DSP can process up to 106 events per second, a feature that makes them compatible with fast detectors and high fluxes of excitation.