GaAs preamplifier and LED driver for use in cryogenic and highly irradiated environments

A low-power dissipation, fast response and reasonable noise performance GaAs MESFETs preamplifier, able to work at low temperatures (89 K) and under high radiation doses, is presented. Attention is given to noise modeling for an application to particle detectors front-end electronics. Noise optimization can be achieved through careful layout design of the preamplifierʹs input transistor. This preamplifier is intended to be followed by a GaAs LED driver both working under the same physical conditions. A GaAs preamplifier and LED driver circuit has been designed and test results are presented and discussed in this paper.