A low-noise low-power charge sensitive amplifier for high-rate single-photon detection.

摘要

Advances in ultraviolet astronomy require detectors capable of single-photon counting at megahertz event rates, with high-spatial resolution, requiring very low-noise electronics. NASA has funded the development of an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) to meet these requirements. This thesis details the design of a 16-channel programmable low-noise charge sensitive amplifier (CSA) for readout of such a detector.;The detector uses a photocathode to convert photons into photoelectrons which are subsequently amplified through a microchannel plate (MCP) stack. The resulting charge is then deposited upon an anode and converted into a voltage by the CSA for digitization. The resolution of such a detector is linearly proportional to the noise of the CSA. The noise of the CSA is linearly related to the capacitance of the detector, and is expressed as a noise slope. In order to satisfy the requirements of the detector, the CSA is required to provide a gain of 10 mV / fC for a range of charge from 1 - 50fC, with a noise of less than 1000 e- or 0.16 fC, for 5 pF of detector capacitance. The CSA must be able to handle event rates of 1 MHz per channel. The CSA described in this work has been fabricated in the TSMC 0.13mum process and preliminary measurements indicate a gain of approximately 9.46 mV / fC, a noise of 1039 e- and a maximum event rate of 10 MHz. The gain, pulse shape, and pulse polarity can be altered through programmable DACs and registers internal to the chip. This work presents the design and initial measurements of the ASIC.