Passive Cavity Aerosol Spectrometer Probe (PCASP-100X)

It is currently in use on research aircraft in more than 20 countries. The PCASP-100X consists of an optical bench and signal processing electronics. The optical bench collects light that is scattered by individual particles passing through a laser beam. It then converts the photon pulses to an electron voltage pulse via an Avalanche Photo Detector. The electronics package amplifies filters, digitizes and categorizes this voltage pulse before transmitting the digital value for processing by an external data system. The scattered light intensity of the PCASP-100X’s particle sizing range covers more than six orders of magnitude. As a result, the instrument uses an amplification system with three gain stages. The high-gain stage amplifies the signal detector voltage by a factor of 45 greater than the mid-gain stage, and the mid-gain stage amplifies by a factor of 17 greater than the low-gain stage. This system allows the probe to accurately size all particles in its range. Datasheet59