A Readout ASIC for CZT Detectors

Spectrometers that can identify the energy of gamma radiation and determine the source isotope have until recently used low temperature semiconductors. These require cooling which makes their portability difficult. The material Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) is now available which operates at room temperature and can be used to measure the energy of gamma radiation. In a compton camera configuration the direction of the radiation can also be determined. A read-out ASIC has been developed for such a system and features 100 channels of electronics, each with a charge amplifier, CR-RC shaper, and peak-hold. A 12 bit ADC converts the data which is sparsified before being read out. The energy, signal rise time, and timestamp of any hit channel is read out together with the data from all of its neighbours. The ASIC has a selectable lower dynamic range which could be used for lower energy interactions.