Design and characterization of a 64 channels ASIC front-end electronics for high-flux particle beam detectors

A new wide-input range 64-channels current-to-frequency converter ASIC has been developed and characterized for applications in beam monitoring of therapeutic particle beams. This chip, named TERA09, has been designed to extend the input current range, compared to the previous versions of the chip, for dealing with high-flux pulsed beams. A particular care was devoted in achieving a good conversion linearity over a wide bipolar input current range. Using a charge quantum of 200  fC, a linearity within ±2% for an input current range between 3  nA and 12  μA is obtained for individual channels, with a gain spread among the channels of about 3%. By connecting all the 64 channels of the chip to a common input, the current range can be increased 64 times preserving a linearity within ±3% in the range between and 20 μA and 750 μA.