A CMOS Peak Stretcher/Peak Detector for Wide Dynamic Range Spectroscopy Applications With 32-μW Power Consumption

A CMOS peak stretcher for pulse-height analysis in spectroscopy applications with an optimized peak-height accuracy and low power consumption, is presented. The proposed circuit has a minimized switch-on transient overshoot, which guarantees a high accuracy also for low-amplitude input pulses. The experimental characterization of the circuit, fabricated in low-noise 0.35-mu m CMOS technology, are presented, showing a peak-height error below 1% across the 10 mV-1 V input range, and a constant switch-on overshoot of around 800 mu V. The complete circuit, including the integrated peak detector, is characterized by a ultralow static power consumption of similar to 32 mu W and has a total area occupation of 0.01 mm(2).