Development of a fully integrated readout system for high counting rate position sensitive measurements of X-rays using silicon strip detectors

The paper describes the development of a multi-channel readout system for X-ray measurements using silicon strip detectors. In the front-end ASIC a binary readout scheme is employed. The binary data are stored in asynchronous counters and read out serially at the end of the measurement sequence. The front-end circuit is designed to work with DC coupled detectors with the leakage current up to few nA. The size of the input device is optimised for a detector capacitance of about 2-5 pF per strip. An equivalent noise charge of 110 e/sup -/ rms has been achieved for the total strip capacitance of 2.5 pF at the peaking time of 1 /spl mu/s. Low noise performance and high counting rate capability have been demonstrated in measurements of X-ray spectra.