Multi-Channel Readout IC for Nuclear Physics Experiments

Low-power, low-cost, multi-channel readout integrated circuits (ROICs) are needed in basically all nuclear physics experiments. While new and effective circuit architectures that take advantage of the newest low- power, inherently radiation-hard digital CMOS technologies have been developed and are commonly used in commercial electronics applications, the ROICs used in nuclear physics experiments commonly still suffer from high power consumption, vulnerability to radiation effects and prohibitive price. Moreover, the ROICs used in these experiments are often custom designed just one target application in mind and the whole design cycle is started from beginning for every new experiment, which increases costs and lengthens the development schedules. To overcome the limitations stated above Alphacore will design a ROIC that takes advantage of power efficient design architectures and is applicable to many nuclear physics experiments. The ROIC has the following specifications: (1) 16 - 32 channels; (2) Programmable low noise preamplifier front-ends (shaping time requirements vary from program to program); (3) ADCs will have 12b – 14b resolution, 40 - 100 MSPS sampling rate and <60mW power consumption; (4) Radiation tolerance that meets nuclear physics experiments requirements; (5) Cost 75% lower per channel than the price of existing solutions. In Phase I Alphacore will design and simulate all the sub-circuits needed in the ROIC. Alphacore aims to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept during Phase I, followed by fabrication and testing of a prototype in Phase II. Commercial applications and other benefits. Alphacore has received a strong support letter from Dr. Tonko Ljubicic of BNL. He is seeking hardware solutions for the readout system such as the proposed for the STAR experiment. The ROIC is also an excellent match to many other planned nuclear physics experiments, such as Electron Ion Collider. According to Dr. Ljubicic, these programs each required tens of thousands of channels. Alphacore has also received strong support from companies and institutions that develop imagers for UAV and space based photon counting applications, as well as other defense applications.