• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.81-84
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• 2010

A CSA(Charge Sensitive Amplifier) was designed and fabricated for application in a radiation detection system based on a semiconductor detector such as Si, SiC, CdZnTe and etc.. A fabricated hybrid.type CSA was evaluated by comparison with a commercially available CSA. A comparison was performed by using calculation of ENC (Equivalent Noise Charge) and by using energy resolutions of fabricated radiation detectors based on Si. In energy resolution comparison, a fabricated CSA showed almost the same performance compared with a commercial one. In this study, feasibility of a fabricated CSA was discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.189-194
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• 2024

This paper presents a radiation-hardened-by-design preamplifier that utilizes a self-compensation technique with a charge-sensitive amplifier (CSA) and replica for total ionizing dose (TID) effects. The CSA consists of an operational amplifier (OPAMP) with a 6-bit binary weighted current source (BWCS) and feedback network. The replica circuit is utilized to compensate for the TID effects of the CSA. Two comparators can detect the operating point of the replica OPAMP and generate appropriate signals to control the switches of the BWCS. The proposed preamplifier was fabricated using a general-purpose complementary metal-oxide-silicon field effect transistor 0.18 ㎛ process and verified through a test up to 230 kGy (SiO₂) at a rate of 10.46 kGy (SiO₂)/h. The code of the BWCS control circuit varied with the total radiation dose. During the verification test, the initial value of the digital code was 39, and a final value of 30 was observed. Furthermore, the preamplifier output exhibited a maximum variation error of 2.39%, while the maximum rise-time error was 1.96%. A minimum signal-to-noise ratio of 49.64 dB was measured.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.678-681
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• 2009

A single-pixel photon counter is designed using a folded cascode CMOS operational amplifier which is self-biased. Since there is no need for a voltage bias circuit, the layout area and power consumption of the designed counter are reduced. The signal voltage of the designed charge sensitive amplifier (CSA) with the MagnaChip $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process is simulated to be 138mv, near the theoretical voltage of 151mV. And the layout area of the designed counter is $100{\mu}m{\times}100{\mu}m$.

• 대한방사선방어학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.04a
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• pp.172-173
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• 2010

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.1235-1242
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• 2008

In this paper, x-ray image sensor of photon counting type having a $32{\times}32$ pixel array is designed with $0.18{\mu}m$ triple-well CMOS process. Each pixel of the designed image sensor has an area of loot $100{\times}100\;{\mu}m2$ and is composed of about 400 transistors. It has an open pad of an area of $50{\times}50{\mu}m2$ of CSA(charge Sensitive Amplifier) with x-ray detector through a bump bonding. To reduce layout size, self-biased folded cascode CMOS OP amp is used instead of folded cascode OP amp with voltage bias circuit at each single-pixel CSA, and 15-bit LFSR(Linear Feedback Shift Register) counter clock generator is proposed to remove short pulse which occurs from the clock before and after it enters the counting mode. And it is designed that sensor data can be read out of the sensor column by column using a column address decoder to reduce the maximum current of the CMOS x-ray image sensor in the readout mode.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.403-411
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• 2020

Since the analog circuit of the beta ray sensor circuit for the true random number generator and the power and ground line used in the comparator circuit are shared with each other, the power generated by the digital switching of the comparator circuit and the voltage drop at the ground line was the cause of the decreasein the output signal voltage drop at the analog circuit including CSA (Charge Sensitive Amplifier). Therefore, in this paper, the output signal voltage of the analog circuit including the CSAcircuit is reduced by separating the power and ground line used in the comparator circuit, which is the source of digital switching noise, from the power and ground line of the analog circuit. In addition, in the voltage-to-voltage converter circuit that converts VREF (=1.195V) voltage to VREF_VCOM and VREF_VTHR voltage, there was a problem that the VREF_VCOM and VREF_VTHR voltages decrease because the driving current flowing through each current mirror varies due to channel length modulation effect at a high voltage VDD of 5.5V when the drain voltage of the PMOS current mirror is different when driving the IREF through the PMOS current mirror. Therefore, in this paper, since the PMOS diode is added to the PMOS current mirror of the voltage-to-voltage converter circuit, the voltages of VREF_VCOM and VREF_VTHR do not go down at a high voltage of 5.5V.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1503-1510
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• 2020

Ultra-low noise charge sensitive amplifiers (CSAs) based on various types of circuit board substrates, such as FR4, Teflon, and ceramics (Al₂O₃) with two different designs, PA1 and PA2, have been developed. They were tested to see the noise effect from the dielectric loss of the substrate capacitance before and after irradiation. If the electronic noise from the CSAs is to be minimized and the energy resolution enhanced, the shaping time has to be optimized for the detector, and a small feedback capacitance of the CSA is favorable for a better SNR. Teflon- and ceramic-based PA1 design CSAs showed better noise performance than the FR4-based one, but the Teflon-based PA1 design showed better sensitivity than ceramic based one at a low detector capacitance (<10 pF). In the PA2 design, the equivalent noise and the sensitivity were 0.52 keV FWHM for a silicon detector and 7.2 mV/fC, respectively, with 2 ㎲ peaking time and 0.1 pF detector capacitance. After 10, 100, 10³, 10⁴, and 10⁵ Gy irradiation the ENC and sensitivity characteristics of the developed CSAs based on three different substrate materials are also discussed.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.338-347
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• 2021

In this paper, the beta-ray sensor circuit used in the true random number generator was designed using DB HiTek's 0.18㎛ CMOS process. The CSA circuit proposed a circuit having a function of selecting a PMOS feedback resistor and an NMOS feedback resistor, and a function of selecting a feedback capacitor of 50fF and 100fF. And for the pulse shaper circuit, a CR-RC2 pulse shaper circuit using a non-inverting amplifier was used. Since the OPAMP circuit used in this paper uses single power instead of dual power, we proposed a circuit in which the resistor of the CR circuit and one node of the capacitor of the RC circuit are connected to VCOM instead of GND. And since the output signal of the pulse shaper does not increase monotonically, even if the output signal of the comparator circuit generates multiple consecutive pulses, the monostable multivibrator circuit is used to prevent signal distortion. In addition, the CSA input terminal, VIN, and the beta-ray sensor output terminal are placed on the top and bottom of the silicon chip to reduce capacitive coupling noise between PCB traces.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.619-628
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• 2019

In this paper, we designed a beta ray sensor for a true random number generator. Instead of biasing the gate of the PMOS feedback transistor to a DC voltage, the current flowing through the PMOS feedback transistor is mirrored through a current bias circuit designed to be insensitive to PVT fluctuations, thereby minimizing fluctuations in the signal voltage of the CSA. In addition, by using the constant current supplied by the BGR (Bandgap Reference) circuit, the signal voltage is charged to the VCOM voltage level, thereby reducing the change in charge time to enable high-speed sensing. The beta ray sensor designed with 0.18㎛ CMOS process shows that the minimum signal voltage and maximum signal voltage of the CSA circuit which are resulted from corner simulation are 205mV and 303mV, respectively. and the minimum and maximum widths of the pulses generated by comparing the output signal through the pulse shaper with the threshold voltage (VTHR) voltage of the comparator, were 0.592㎲ and 1.247㎲, respectively. resulting in high-speed detection of 100kHz. Thus, it is designed to count up to 100 kilo pulses per second.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.83-91
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• 2014

This paper presents a capacitive readout circuit for tri-axes microaccelerometer with sub-fF offset calibration capability. A charge sensitive amplifier (CSA) with correlated double sampling (CDS) and digital to equivalent capacitance converter (DECC) is proposed. The DECC is implemented using 10-bit DAC, charge transfer switches, and a charge-storing capacitor. The DECC circuit can realize the equivalent capacitance of sub-fF range with a smaller area and higher accuracy than previous offset cancelling circuit using series-connected capacitor arrays. The readout circuit and MEMS sensing element are integrated in a single package. The supply voltage and the current consumption of analog blocks are 3.3 V and $230{\mu}A$, respectively. The sensitivities of tri-axes are measured to be 3.87 mg/LSB, 3.87 mg/LSB and 3.90 mg/LSB, respectively. The offset calibration which is controlled by 10-bit DECC has a resolution of 12.4 LSB per step with high linearity. The noise levels of tri-axes are $349{\mu}g$/${\sqrt}$Hz, $341{\mu}g$/${\sqrt}$Hz and $411{\mu}g$/${\sqrt}$Hz, respectively.