Development of an integrated four-channel fast avalanche-photodiode detector system with nanosecond time resolution

Journal Article · 18 July 2017 · Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2017.05.021 · OSTI ID:1467105

Li, Zhenjie ^[1]; Li, Qiuju ^[1]; Chang, Jinfan ^[2]; Ma, Yichao ^[3]; Liu, Peng ^[1]; Wang, Zheng ^[2]; Hu, Michael Y. ^[4]; Zhao, Jiyong ^[4]; Alp, E. E. ^[4]; Xu, Wei ^[1]; Tao, Ye ^[1]; Wu, Chaoqun ^[5]; Zhou, Yangfan ^[1]

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1. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Inst. of High Energy Physics
2. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). State Key Lab. of Particle Detection and Electronics. Inst. of High Energy Physics
3. Shaanxi Univ. of Science and Technology, Xi'an (China). College of Electrical & Information Engineering
4. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source
5. Wuhan Univ. of Technology (China). School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering

In this paper, a four-channel nanosecond time-resolved avalanche-photodiode (APD) detector system is developed at Beijing Synchrotron Radiation. It uses a single module for signal processing and readout. This integrated system provides better reliability and flexibility for custom improvement. The detector system consists of three parts: (i) four APD sensors, (ii) four fast preamplifiers and (iii) a time-digital-converter (TDC) readout electronics. The C30703FH silicon APD chips fabricated by Excelitas are used as the sensors of the detectors. It has an effective light-sensitive area of 10 $\times$ 10 mm² and an absorption layer thickness of 110 $\mathrm{\mu }$m. A fast preamplifier with a gain of 59 dB and bandwidth of 2 GHz is designed to readout of the weak signal from the C30703FH APD. The TDC is realized by a Spartan-6 field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA) with multiphase method in a resolution of 1ns. The arrival time of all scattering events between two start triggers can be recorded by the TDC. The detector has been used for nuclear resonant scattering study at both Advanced Photon Source and also at Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Finally, for the X-ray energy of 14.4 keV, the time resolution, the full width of half maximum (FWHM) of the detector (APD sensor + fast amplifier) is 0.86 ns, and the whole detector system (APD sensors + fast amplifiers + TDC readout electronics) achieves a time resolution of 1.4 ns.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); Shaanxi Univ. of Science and Technology, Xi'an (China); Wuhan Univ. of Technology (China)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); Key Technologies R & D Program of Hubei Province of China; USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357; 11605227; 2015BCE076
• OSTI ID: 1467105
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1691722
• Journal Information: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 870; ISSN 0168-9002
• Publisher: ElsevierCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English