Improving the Performances of Silicon Detector Electronics in High Energy Experiments by Optoelectronic Transmission of Analog Signals between Beam Line and Counting Room

The optoelectronic link described here transmits short analog signals from the beam line of the accelerator where the detectors and the front-end circuits are located to a remote counting room. Features of the electronic link that turn out to be important in high energy applications of silicon detectors are the distorsionless transmission of short signals, which results in improved counting rate capabilities and insensitivity to environment noise. This paper describes the design criteria employed to realize an optoelectro nic link with good linearity, high stability and very low intrinsic noise. The application of the link as a part of an analog processor for low noise data acquisition from solid state active targets is discussed.