Signal, Noise and Resolution in Position-Sensitive Detectors

An analysis is presented of signal, noise and position resolution relations for some of the most interesting position-sensing methods. "Electronic cooling" of delay line terminations is introduced in order to reduce noise in the position-sensing with delay lines. A new method for terminating transmission lines and for "noiseless" damping which employs a capacitance in feedback is presented. It is shown that the position resolution for the charge division method with resistive electrodes is determined only by the electrode capacitance and not by the electrode resistance, if optimum filtering is used.