ASIC for Small Angle Neutron Scattering Experiments at the SNS

• Published in: IEEE transactions on nuclear science Vol. 54; no. 3; pp. 541 - 548
• Main Authors: De Geronimo, G., Fried, J., Smith, G.C., Bo Yu, Vernon, E., Britton, C.L., Bryan, W.L., Clonts, L.G., Frank, S.S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-06-2007; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: ADC; Application specific integrated circuits; ASIC; Channels; Charge; Charge measurement; Circuit noise; Current measurement; Digitization; Filtering; Filtration; gas detector; Gas detectors; Neutron scattering; Neutron sources; Neutron spin echo; Noise level; peak detector; Spallation; Timing
• ISSN: 0018-9499; 1558-1578
• DOI: 10.1109/TNS.2007.893718

We present an ASIC for a 3 He gas detector to be used in small angle neutron scattering experiments at the spallation neutron source in oak ridge. The ASIC is composed of 64 channels with low noise charge amplification, filtering, timing and amplitude measurement circuits, where an innovative current-mode peak-detector and digitizer (PDAD) is adopted. The proposed PDAD provides at the same time peak detection and A/D conversion in real time, at low power, and without requiring a clock signal. The channels share an efficient data sparsification and derandomization scheme, a 30-bit 256 deep FIFO, and low voltage differential signaling.