A 40db gain single chip pulse amplifier for particle detection

A very high gain front end amplifier for detection of cosmic rays in nuclear physics has been realised with the 0.5 μm GaAs MESFET technology of the Alenia foundry. Because of its higher gain than 40 dB in the 50 MHz - 1 GHz band it can be considered an example of successfull integration of a very high gain circuit into GaAs monolithic technology, demonstrating the effectiveness of GaAs for readout electronics of radiation detectors. Being an active matching amplifier for 50 ohm input-output environment, with more than 20 dB of return loss, it can be applied everytime a low impedance readout is mandatory, and it has been also tested in data communication systems with optical or cable links.