A front-end ASIC for ionising radiation monitoring with femto-amp capabilities

An ultra-low leakage current Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) called Utopia (Ultralow Picoammeter) has been designed and fabricated in AMS 0.35 mu m CMOS, in order to be used as the front-end for ionising radiation monitoring at CERN. It is based on the topology of a Current to Frequency Converter (CFC) through charge balancing and demonstrates a wide dynamic range of 8.5 decades without range changing. Due to a design aimed at minimising input leakage currents, input currents as low as 10 fA can be measured.