Correction of response time errors in ratemeters
C.H. Vincent · Journal of Scientific Instruments · 1966
This letter refers particularly to two papers recently published describing studies of response time distortion of the output in ratemeters measuring varying pulse rates. These studies were made with a view to subsequent processing of the output data to reduce such distortion, and the papers contain a reference to earlier work on the correction of response-time error in a thermal detection system. The letter points out that the conditions in the two cases are essentially different, the limitation in the thermal case being the difficulty of the physical construction of a faster detector, while that in the ratemeter case being the fundamental relationship causing random fluctuation of the output to increase with speed of response. It is, therefore, concluded that subsequent processing of the output cannot yield better results than those obtained from a suitably designed ratemeter.