High-resolution VLSI spectroscopy amplifiers based on a current-mode scheme

Author

Buzzetti, Siro ; Guazzoni, Chiara ; Longoni, Antonio

Author_Institution

Dipt. di Elettronica a Informazione, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Volume

1

fYear

2003

fDate

19-25 Oct. 2003

Firstpage

11

Abstract

A novel current mode approach to design monolithic spectroscopy amplifiers virtually of any order is proposed. The proposed topology is suitable to design spectroscopy amplifiers with high-value (∼1-10 μs) time constants avoiding excessive area wastage. We have designed in 0.8 μm BiCMOS technology a 5^th order shaping amplifier (0.5 μs shaping time) to be coupled to monolithic arrays of Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) for high resolution X-ray spectroscopy. In this paper we present the main issues of the circuit design and a detailed discussion of the results of the experimental characterization. The measured integral-non-linearity is below ±0.2% and the achieved energy resolution at the Mn Kα line (measured with the proposed spectroscopy amplifier coupled to a 5 mm² Peltier-cooled Silicon Drift Detector) is 159 eV FWHM fully comparable to the one obtained with a commercial shaping amplifier with the same time constant.

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; VLSI; X-ray spectroscopy; amplifiers; 0.8 micron; 1 to 10 mus; BiCMOS technology; circuit design; current-mode scheme; excessive area wastage; high resolution X-ray spectroscopy; high-resolution VLSI spectroscopy amplifiers; monolithic spectroscopy amplifiers; shaping amplifier; time constants; BiCMOS integrated circuits; Coupling circuits; Energy measurement; Energy resolution; Sensor arrays; Silicon; Spectroscopy; Time measurement; Topology; Very large scale integration;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, 2003 IEEE

ISSN

1082-3654

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8257-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NSSMIC.2003.1351988

Filename

1351988