A Low-Power CMOS Instrumentation Chain for Microchannel Plates in Astrophysics

A CMOS instrumentation chain for electron and charged particle detection has been optimized for low-noise, low-power consumption and high-speed response. Using a standard 0.35 μm CMOS process, the total active area occupies 0.77 mm
²
. This analog front-end readout circuit has a pulse time response of 55 ns. The equivalent input referred noise charge of this instrumentation chain is approximately 954e
^-
for a conversion gain of 0.9 mV/fC and power consumption is 1.73 mW. The charge conversion dynamic range is 79 dB and it is possible to convert charges up to 1.5 pC for counting applications. This circuit has a maximum repetitive pulse rate of 2.6 MHz.