Development of low-noise high-speed analog ASIC for X-ray CCD cameras and wide-band X-ray imaging sensors

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• 作者：Hiroshi Nakajima^a ; ^b ; ^{nakajima@ess.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Shin-nosuke Hirose^a ; ^b ; Ritsuko Imatani^a ; ^b ; Ryo Nagino^a ; ^b ; Naohisa Anabuki^a ; ^b ; Kiyoshi Hayashida^a ; ^b ; Hiroshi Tsunemi^a ; ^b ; John P. Doty^c ; Hirokazu Ikeda^d ; Hisashi Kitamura^e ; Yukio Uchihori^e
• 关键词：X-ray ; ASIC ; CCD camera
• 刊名：Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：21 September 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：831
• 期：Complete
• 页码：283-287
• 全文大小：1070 K

文摘

We report on the development and performance evaluation of the mixed-signal Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) developed for the signal processing of onboard X-ray CCD cameras and various types of X-ray imaging sensors in astrophysics. The quick and low-noise readout is essential for the pile-up free imaging spectroscopy with a future X-ray telescope. Our goal is the readout noise of class="mathmlsrc">title="View the MathML source" class="mathImg" data-mathURL="/science?_ob=MathURL&_method=retrieve&_eid=1-s2.0-S0168900216302121&_mathId=si0002.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0168900216302121&_rdoc=1&_issn=01689002&md5=cf46a2982b81d66828719d1b23e9221b">class="imgLazyJSB inlineImage" height="10" width="41" alt="View the MathML source" style="margin-top: -5px; vertical-align: middle" title="View the MathML source" src="/sd/grey_pxl.gif" data-inlimgeid="1-s2.0-S0168900216302121-si0002.gif">class="mathContainer hidden">class="mathCode"> at the pixel rate of 1 Mpix/s that is about 10 times faster than those of the currently working detectors. We successfully developed a low-noise ASIC as the front-end electronics of the Soft X-ray Imager onboard Hitomi that was launched on February 17, 2016. However, it has two analog-to-digital converters per chain due to the limited processing speed and hence we need to correct the difference of gain to obtain the X-ray spectra. Furthermore, its input equivalent noise performance is not satisfactory class="mathmlsrc">title="View the MathML source" class="mathImg" data-mathURL="/science?_ob=MathURL&_method=retrieve&_eid=1-s2.0-S0168900216302121&_mathId=si0003.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0168900216302121&_rdoc=1&_issn=01689002&md5=a9fd3967f8f859d4817fd492906fa1d6">class="imgLazyJSB inlineImage" height="11" width="47" alt="View the MathML source" style="margin-top: -5px; vertical-align: middle" title="View the MathML source" src="/sd/grey_pxl.gif" data-inlimgeid="1-s2.0-S0168900216302121-si0003.gif">class="mathContainer hidden">class="mathCode">$(>100\mathrm{\mu }\mathrm{V}$) at the pixel rate higher than 500 kpix/s. Then we upgrade the design of the ASIC with the fourth-order class="mathmlsrc">class="formulatext stixSupport mathImg" data-mathURL="/science?_ob=MathURL&_method=retrieve&_eid=1-s2.0-S0168900216302121&_mathId=si0004.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0168900216302121&_rdoc=1&_issn=01689002&md5=d0025116284099836e0622fa91d93bb8" title="Click to view the MathML source">ΔΣclass="mathContainer hidden">class="mathCode">$\mathrm{\Delta }\Sigma$ modulators to enhance its inherent noise-shaping performance. Its performance is measured using pseudo CCD signals with variable processing speed. Although its input equivalent noise is comparable with the conventional one, the integrated non-linearity (0.1%) improves to about the half of that of the conventional one. The radiation tolerance is also measured with regard to the total ionizing dose effect and the single event latch-up using protons and Xenon, respectively. The former experiment shows that all of the performances does not change after imposing the dose corresponding to 590 years in a low earth orbit. We also put the upper limit on the frequency of the latch-up to be once per 48 years.