A novel low noise mixed signal switched CMOS readout chain for imaging-spectroscopic pixel X-ray detectors

A novel CMOS charge sensitive readout chain with self switched output for pixel applications has been developed. The system is capable of simultaneous position sensing and energy measurement on a real time basis. Each pixel circuitry incorporates both analog and digital features to perform the dual task. The pixel electronics have been designed and fabricated in CMOS 0.8 μm technology. Noise evaluation of several charge amplifiers as input stages has been performed and reported. The overall gain of the chain is 620 mV/fC. With an ENC of 58 e^- RMS at 140 nsec shaping time and a power consumption of 1.8 mW per pixel at 3.3 V it is a promising solution for X-ray pixel detectors. The paper describes the system architecture and reports experimental measurements