A 16 channel VLSI chip, containing charge amplifier and analog to digital converter, for readout of highly granular particle detectors

An integrated circuit for readout of particle detectors, producing a charge signal has been developed. The circuit contains 16 channels of charge integration, sample and hold amplifier, followed by an analog multiplexer. The charge content of each channel is digitized, one by one, by a 6 bit nonlinear flash ADC, The result is stored in a memory, pending for readout. The chip has proven to sense an input charge as low as 1 fC. Two versions of the chip exist, one with a gated charge integrator input and the other with a shaping amplifier input stage. Both circuits have been fabricated on large scale. They have successfully been used for readout of multistep avalanche chambers and streamer tube detectors in the Heavy Ion experiment WA98 at the CERN SPS. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.