Abstract :
A low-power, high-gain amplifier for detector readout is discussed. The amplifier is balanced, fully differential in circuit topology, and symmetrical in layout, making it radiation tolerant and relatively insensitive to varying magnetic fields in the large detector. Before irradiation, the circuit has a measured differential gain of 110 mV/4 fC, an average 10/90% rise time t10/90% of 19 ns, a noise figure of 433⊕93·(Ct)1.08 electrons, e-, and a power consumption of 750 μW. To keep the core amplifier stable, a low-power super-low gain-bandwidth (SL-GBW) amplifier with a small area is used and also discussed. The SL-GBW amplified has a transition frequency fT of 38 kHz (including the gain stage, A), a power consumption of 150 nW, a phase margin (PM) of ≈70°, an area of 300×36 μm2, and a minimum current per transistor of 7 nA, which is far above the leakage current after irradiation. The complete circuit was implemented in the radiation hard SOI-SIMOX BiCMOS-PJFET technology of DMILL
Keywords :
BiCMOS analogue integrated circuits; SIMOX; detector circuits; differential amplifiers; nuclear electronics; pulse amplifiers; radiation hardening (electronics); DMILL; SL-GBW compensation amplifier; SOI-SIMOX BiCMOS-PJFET technology; balanced fully differential amplifier; capacitive detector readout; circuit topology; core amplifier; low noise charge amplifier; low-power high-gain transresistance BiCMOS pulse amplifier; magnetic field; radiation hardness; super-low gain-bandwidth amplifier; BiCMOS integrated circuits; Circuit topology; Differential amplifiers; Energy consumption; Gain measurement; Magnetic field measurement; Noise measurement; Power measurement; Pulse amplifiers; Radiation detectors;
