Key to the successful delivery of advanced multi-channel detector systems is the capability to provide highly-integrated electronic readout solutions. With over 35 years of microelectronics design activity for science applications, the Detector and Electronics Division is well placed to produce high-performance front-end electronics tailored to any application's detector system requirements.
The Division's microelectronics activity focuses on the design of mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) for the readout of sensitive detectors, and specialises in the design of analogue preamplifiers matched to the detector, and optimised for noise performance and power.
Our ICs are found in advanced instruments for space science, medical imaging, synchrotrons, nuclear physics, and particle physics experiments, with channel densities ranging from tens to millions of channels in size, such as in the Silicon Tracker layers of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Involvement in application areas such as these also means that we are very familiar with designing ICs able to operate in harsh environments, such as extreme temperatures or radiation.
Utilising the leading IC design software tools, we can offer a complete on-chip solution to detector readout with high performance Analogue-to-Digital Converters (ADCs), high-speed data serialisers, and slow-control interfaces such as SPI and I2C, all within the same IC. We design with microelectronic technologies from 350nm to 65nm, selected on the basis of technical need and available budget.
An ongoing development programme ensures that we are always advancing our capabilities in anticipation of the requirements for next generation detector systems.
We work closely with our customers to guarantee that our designs meet their needs, and to ensure that their detector system is tuned to achieve optimal performance from the IC.
All of our design projects are realised in compliance with our ISO9001 certified Quality Management System. If you would like any further information, please contact us at microelectronicsdesign@stfc.ac.uk.
