Miniature Charge Sensitive Preamp-Amplifier for Use with Silicon Surface Barrier Detectors

A compact, high speed, low cost, charge sensitive preamp-amplifier has been constructed for use in a mass spectrometer data readout array. The device, which is capable of handling count rates up to 1 MHz, can be mounted on a 2 x 8 cm circuit board. The circuit was designed as a high rate counter-amplifier, but it has also been determined to be sufficiently linear so that with suitable shaping of the output signal, pulse height analysis is feasible.