SCTA - A Rad-Hard BiCMOS Analogue Readout ASIC for the ATLAS Semiconductor Tracker

Two prototype chips for the analogue readout of silicon strip detectors in the ATLAS Semiconductor Tracker (SCT) have been designed and manufactured, in 32 channels and 128 channel versions, using the radiation hard BiCMOS DMILL process. The SCTA chip comprises three basic blocks: front-end amplifier, analogue pipeline and output multiplexer. The front-end circuit is a fast transresistance amplifier followed by an integrator, providing fast shaping with a peaking time of 25 ns, and an output buffer. The front end output values are sampled at 40 MHz rate and stored in a 112-cell deep analogue pipeline. The delay between the write pointer and trigger pointer is tunable between 2 ms and 2.5 ms. The chip has been tested successfully and subsequently irradiated up to 10 Mrad. Full functionality of all blocks of the chip has been achieved at a clock frequency of 40 MHz both before and after irradiation. Noise figures of ENC = 720 e- + 33 e-/pF before irradiation and 840 e- + 33 e-/pF after irradiation have been obtained

Position-sensitive Si pad detectors for electron emission channeling experiments

Position-sensitive detector systems, initially developed for the detection of X-rays, have been adapted for their use in electron emission channeling experiments. Each detection system consists of a 30.8x30.8 mm$^{2}$ 22x22 -pad Si detector, either of 0.3 mm, 0.5 mm or 1 mm thickness, four 128$-$channel preamplifier chips, a backplane trigger circuit, a sampling analog to digital converter, a digital signal processor, and a personal computer for data display and storage. The operational principle of these detection systems is described, and characteristic features such as energy and position resolution and maximum count rate, which have been determined from tests with conversion electrons and $\beta^-\!$ -particles in the energy range 40--600 keV, are presented

Performance evaluation of a very high resolution small animal PET imager using silicon scatter detectors

A very high resolution positron emission tomography (PET) scanner for small animal imaging based on the idea of inserting a ring of high-granularity solid-state detectors into a conventional PET scanner is under investigation. A particularly interesting configuration of this concept, which takes the form of a degenerate Compton camera, is shown capable of providing sub-millimeter resolution with good sensitivity. We present a Compton PET system and estimate its performance using a proof-of-concept prototype. A prototype single-slice imaging instrument was constructed with two silicon detectors 1 mm thick, each having 512 1.4 mm × 1.4 mm pads arranged in a 32 × 16 array. The silicon detectors were located edgewise on opposite sides and flanked by two non-position sensitive BGO detectors. The scanner performance was measured for its sensitivity, energy, timing, spatial resolution and resolution uniformity. Using the experimental scanner, energy resolution for the silicon detectors is 1%. However, system energy resolution is dominated by the 23% FWHM BGO resolution. Timing resolution for silicon is 82.1 ns FWHM due to time-walk in trigger devices. Using the scattered photons, time resolution between the BGO detectors is 19.4 ns FWHM. Image resolution of 980 µm FWHM at the center of the field-of-view (FOV) is obtained from a 1D profile of a 0.254 mm diameter 18F line source image reconstructed using the conventional 2D filtered back-projection (FBP). The 0.4 mm gap between two line sources is resolved in the image reconstructed with both FBP and the maximum likelihood expectation maximization (ML-EM) algorithm. The experimental instrument demonstrates sub-millimeter resolution. A prototype having sensitivity high enough for initial small animal images can be used for in vivo studies of small animal models of metabolism, molecular mechanism and the development of new radiotracers.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58094/2/pmb7_10_012.pd

Performance of a 128 channel analogue front-end chip for read-out of Si strip detector modules for LHC experiments

We present a 128-channel analogue front-end chip, SCT128A-HC, for readout of silicon strip detectors employed in the inner tracking detectors of the LHC experiment. The chip is produced in the radiation hard DMILL technology. The architecture of the chip and critical design issues are discussed. The performance of the chip has been evaluated in details in the test bench and is presented in the paper. The chip is used to read out prototype analogue modules compatible in size, functionality and performance with the ATLAS SCT base line modules. Several full size detector modules equipped with SCT128A-HC chips has been built and tested successfully in the lab with beta particles as well as in the test beam. The results concerning the signal-to-noise ratio, noise occupancy, efficiency and spatial resolution are presented. The radiation hardness issues are discussed. (5 refs)

Analogue read-out chip for Si strip detector modules for LHC experiments

We present a 128-channel analogue front-end chip SCTA128 for readout of silicon strip detectors employed in the inner tracking detectors of LHC experiments. The architecture of the chip and critical design issues are discussed. The performance of the chip has been evaluated in detail in bench tests and is presented in the paper. The chip is used to read out prototype analogue modules compatible in size, functionality and performance with the ATLAS SCT base line modules. Several full size detector modules equipped with SCTA128 chips have been built and tested successfully in the lab with E particles as well as in beam tests

Silicon detector for a Compton Camera in Nuclear Medical Imaging

Electronically collimated gamma ca\-me\-ras based on Com\-pton scattering in silicon pad sensors may improve imaging in nuclear medicine and bio-medical research. The work described here concentrates on the silicon pad detector developed for a prototype Compton camera. The silicon pad sensors are read out using low noise VLSI CMOS chips and novel fast triggering chips. Depending on the application a light weight and dense packaging of sensors and its readout electronics on a hybrid is required. We describe the silicon pad sensor and their readout with the newly designed hybrid. %The silicon detector of a Compton camera %may contain up to $10^5$~analogue channels requiring %a fast and low cost data acquisition system. We also describe a modular and low-cost data acquisition system (CCDAQ) based on a digital signal processor which is interfaced to the EPP port of personal computers. Using the CCDAQ and the hybrids energy spectra of gamma-ray photons from technetium ($^{\rm 99m}_{43}$Tc) and americium ($^{241}_{95}$Am) were acquired with an energy resolution of 2.45~keV FWHM for the 140.5~keV photo-absorption line of $^{\rm 99m}_{43}$Tc. For all pads the discrimination threshold in the trigger chip was between (15 and 25)~keV

Progress in development of the readout chip for the ATLAS semiconductor tracker

The development of the ABCD chip for the binary readout of silicon strip detectors in the ATLAS Semiconductor Tracker has entered a pre-production prototyping phase. Following evaluation of the ABCD2T prototype chip, necessary correction in the design have been implemented and the ABCD3T version has been manufactured in the DMILL process. Design issues addressed in the ABCD3T chip and performance of this pre-production prototype are discussed