Design of a fast and low-noise front-end electronics developed for the measurements of low- and medium-energy charged particles in space plasma environments

Abstract

A fast and low-noise front-end electronics for amplifying and filtering the signal generated by a silicon detector has been designed, simulated, developed, and characterized as the main part of the detection chain for an instrument devoted to the measurements of low- and medium-energy charged particles in space plasma environments. The targeted low energy threshold is 10 keV with a 10% resolution. The simulated performances of the developed electronics reach a gain bandwidth of up to 16.1 GHz, a noise level at the input of 0.96 nV/Hz−1/2, and an equivalent noise charge of 4.62 keV. The experimental measurements with injection testing show resolution below 5 keV and a low threshold of 31.46 keV. Radioactive testing shows a resolution of 30.9 keV because the detector capacitance is larger than expected (21 vs 10 pF). A good agreement between simulation with a 21 pF detector capacitance and experimental measurement is achieved within 18%.