Submitted by- Submitted to-

Darshana Paliwal(1656) Dr. Shiv Om Meena

Prachi Mahar(16)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
 When semiconductor detector like Si is used for
measurement of soft x-rays and low to high energy
gamma rays, output signal is weak charge pulse .
 It has a pulse of width of several tens of
nanoseconds.
 As the detector element is itself a capacitive having
high impedance, therefore performance of
preamplifier must taken in consideration.
 In such application , operational amplifier using
feedback capacitance are commonly used.
 Due to high impedance , they integrate weak
charge pulse and convert them into voltage pulses
for amplification then provide low input
impedance output.
 This type of amplifier is called “charge amplifier”.
 First stage of charge amplifier is usually a low noise
FET and its open loop gain is set so high that
amplification is not influenced by detector
capacitance.
 Principle of operation
 When soft X-rays or gamma rays
strike for example Si
semiconductor detector , signal
charge pulse Qs are generated,
with an amplitude acc. to particle
energy.
 The signal charge pulses Qs are
integrated to feedback
capacitance Cf and then output as
voltage pulses eout(t).
 At this point , since feedback
resistance Rf for direct current is
connected in parallel to the
feedback capacitance Cf , the
output becomes voltage pulse that
slowly charge with the time
constant determined by Cf*Rf.
Characteristic
 In general,following of the characteristic of charge
amplifier is required for detection of the soft x-rays
and low to high gamma rays.
1. High gain
2. Low noise
3. Excellent integration linearity
4. High speed-rise time
5. High temperature stability
Noise
 Figure shows noise equivalent circuit of charge amplifier.
Noise in the circuit comes from three major sources-
1. Thermal noise of first stage FET
it is given by (en1)-

K=Boltzmann constant
T=temperature
Gm=mutual conductance of fisrt stage FET
2. Shot noise caused by gate current of first stage FET and dark current of
detector.
it is given by-
q= elementary charge
IG= gate leaked current of first stage FET
ID=dark current of FET
3.Thermal noise due to feedback resistance:-
Thermal noise(en2) due to feedback resistance Rf is-

From the above three equation , total noise is given by-

 In the above equation , first component is constant over the

entire range of frequency.
 It is amplified by the noise gain(1+Cin/Cf) which is
determined by input capacitance Cf.
 The second term is constant regardless of capacitance Cin
but decrease with incresing frequency.
Noise spectrum:-