The Silence of the Amps: Integrated Circuits for Very-Low-Noise Processing of Random Signals from Radiation Detectors

In this article, I will offer a brief overview of the progress toward the current state of the art of integrated circuits (ICs) for the sciences that make use of ionizing radiation (X- and c rays, electrons, protons, ions, and alpha particles) for the discovery or study of fundamental phenomena in nature. Two examples of these are astrophysics, which use radiation spectrometry to study some of the fundamental processes occurring in and out of our galaxy [1], [2], and elementary particle physics, in which ionizing radiation is used to study the fundamental laws of matter [3]. Ionizing radiation is also commonly employed in several applications related to human life. Examples include medical imaging (CT, PET, X-ray radiography, and so on), radiotherapy, and X-ray scanners for security.