A preamplifier for the front-end readout system of particles tracking in secondary electron detectors

This paper presents the design and characterization of a preamplifier used in the electronic front-end of low-pressure gaseous secondary electron detectors. The circuit - implemented in a printed circuit board as a proof of concept - has been designed to cope with the specifications of the readout electronics used in spatial resolution measurements. Experimental results show a transimpedance gain of 80dB, an overall voltage gain of 18 dB, a peak signal-to-noise ratio of 36.5 dB and a shaping time frame of 140-170ns. These features improve the performance of previous reported approaches to the problem, and allow us to minimize the overlapping probability in secondary electron detections for radioactive ion beams tracking, achieving a counting rate higher than 106 particles per second.