Peak hold monolithic integrated circuit with built-in shaping amplifier for hard X-ray detector

A pulse-shape discriminator (PSD) has been designed using semicustom analog LSI technology (bipolar junction transistors) for a Japanese hard X-ray satellite telescope. The telescope consists of a well-type Phoswich counter consisting of bismuth-germanite (BGO) and gadolinium-silicate (GSO) crystal. The PSD circuitry includes two shaping amplifiers (100 and 500 ns), with peak hold circuits; a low-level threshold comparator with a latch; a high-level comparator; an auto reset circuit; and an input signal suppression circuit.<>