New electronics system for silicon strip readout for 18 KeV electrons

A novel readout electronics system for a silicon strip detector was designed for a neutrino mass experiment. The system consisted of low-noise preamplifiers and a high-linearity peak-sensitive ADC (analog/digital converter). The system was based on a TKO box, aiming for high reliability and for high-density packaging. The preamplifiers were designed to have the lowest possible noise and yet to be compatible with the mass production of several hundred units. The equivalent noise charge of the preamplifier was found to be 390±60 electrons and 830±60 electrons equivalent for 0- and 100-pF input capacitance, respectively. The gain variation of the preamplifier was within ±6%. The performance of the peak-hold amplifier was tested using a CAMAC version of the peak-sensitive ADC. The nonlinearity of the peak-hold amplifier was less than ±0.06% for the dynamic range from 3% to 100% of the full scale