An 8-Channel 250 MHz BiCMOS discriminator for medical imaging

Several clinical and diagnostic applications, such as X-ray imaging, digital mammography and nuclear medicine, use imaging techniques employing detectors typical of high-energy physics. The discriminator is a fundamental block in the digital image processing chain since it discriminates useful signals from the background noise and converts them into standardized logic pulses of predefined amplitude and duration for successive digital processing. This paper describes a discriminator IC that operates at up to 250 MHz. The device, realized in a 1.2 /spl mu/m BiCMOS technology, incorporates 8 equal and independent channels and consumes 68 mW per channel. Each channel is composed of a comparator followed by a pulse shaper. The circuit may be interfaced with most detectors as well as digital processors.