An 8-channels O.13μm-CMOS front-end for ATLAS MDT-detectors

An 8-channels read-out front-end for LHC ATLAS Muon-Drift-Tubes detectors is presented (8xAFE). The system is composed by the cascade of the analog signal processing FrontEnd and of the Wilkinson A/D (to perform voltage-to-time conversion for time-over-threshold detection). The sensitivity at the output of the analog signal processing chain is 13.8mV/fC, while the Equivalent-Noise-Charge (ENC) is 0.6fC (∼3.38ke), performing <12ns preamplifier rise-time. These performances have been achieved, managing very high detector parasitic capacitance at the front-end input (∼60pF). Each channel consumes 11mA from a single 3.3V supply voltage. In 0.13μm CMOS, the total area occupancy is 6.3mm2.