High-Count Rate, Low Power and Low Noise Single Electron Readout ASIC in 65nm CMOS Technology

Particle detection circuits are used for a wide range of applications from experimental physics to material testing and medical imaging. State-of-the-art imaging systems, such as scanning electron microscopes (SEMs), demand the ability to detect small amounts of charge with small time-resolution and limited power consumption, creating an implementation dead-end for conventional readout topologies. In this paper, a particle detection readout based on an intersymbol interference cancellation scheme is introduced to address this issue. Evaluated in post-layout simulations, the proposed architecture can detect generated charges as small as 160 aC with 97.8% certainty. The readout can operate with event rates up to 400 MEvent/s while only consuming 2.85 mW of power.