Toward a very low-power integrated charge preamplifier by using III-V field effect transistors

The future high-energy physics experiments, based on the new high-luminosity accelerators, will require a new generation of front-end monolithic electronics characterized, in particular, by high speed and low-power dissipation. In this perspective, the performances of Si and GaAs field effect transistors (FET´s) are compared here in conditions of low-power dissipation. The advantages of solutions based on GaAs FET´s, in applications requiring fast shaping times, are presented and experimental results are reported. The criteria for the optimum choice of the input transistor dimension and of its bias point are discussed