Readout electronics for X-ray imaging using gas-filled detectors

The paper describes a comprehensive readout electronics system for X-ray imaging using gas-filled detectors to be used at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). The front-end electronics (named BLADE3) relies on a multi-strips binary parallel readout architecture. BLADE3 features 256 channels in a small space (120×300mm2 printed circuit board) at low power (12mW per channel for the analog processing). It is based on a 16-channel preamplifier-discriminator ASIC (named ASG217) of the trans-impedance type. The ASG217 measured gain (220kΩ), peaking time (15ns), and RMS noise (1.5mV+0.1mV/pF) well match the simulated results. Front-end boards communicate with the back-end electronics using 2Gb/s optical links. The back-end electronics has been implemented in the CompactPCI format and can be operated through a PCI bridge by any host computer. The experience gained with a prototype detector indicates that the front-end electronics meets our requirements. The back-end electronics, already operational for one-dimensional readout, has to be significantly improved for supporting two-dimensional imaging at high photon flux.