Design of an ultra low power CMOS pixel sensor for a future neutron personal dosimeter

Despite a continuously increasing demand, neutron electronic personal dosimeters (EPDs) are still far from being completely established because their development is a very difficult task. A low-noise, ultra low power consumption CMOS pixel sensor for a future neutron personal dosimeter has been implemented in a 0.35 μm CMOS technology. The prototype is composed of a pixel array for detection of charged particles, and the readout electronics is integrated on the same substrate for signal processing. The excess electrons generated by an impinging particle are collected by the pixel array. The charge collection time and the efficiency are the crucial points of a CMOS detector. The 3-D device simulations using the commercially available Synopsys-SENTAURUS package address the detailed charge collection process. Within a time of 1.9 μs, about 59% electrons created by the impact particle are collected in a cluster of 4×4 pixels with the pixel pitch of 80 μm. A charge sensitive preamplifier (CSA) and a shaper are employed in the frond-end readout. The tests with electrical signals indicate that our prototype with a total active area of 2.56×2.56 mm
²
performs an equivalent noise charge (ENC) of less than 400 e
^-
and 314 μW power consumption, leading to a promising prototype.