Time to Pulse-Height Converter Using Bitripoles

The exploitation of the apparent i,v characteristic of a tunnel diode when driven into high frequency oscillations was described and theoretically analyzed in three preceding papers. There was demonstrated the possibility of obtaining an accurate machine time associated to incoming events. The present paper describes a time to pulse-height converter based on the use of circuits (so-called bitripoles) exploiting this apparent characteristic. Some new elaborations of the basic circuit are described and first results are analyzed. A FWHM resolution of 77 ps with two XP1020 photomultiplier tubes driven by a hydrogen lamp was obtained. It seems that this figure can be decreased.