Recent attempts to directly combine CMOS pixel readout chips with modern gas detectors open the possibility to fully take advantage of gas detectors. Those conventional readout LSIs designed for hybrid semiconductor detectors show some issues when applied to gas detectors. Several new proposed readout LSIs can improve the time and the charge measurement precision. However, the widely used basic charge sensitive amplifier (CSA) has an almost fixed dynamic range. There is a trade-off between the charge measurement resolution and the detectable input charge range. This paper presents a method to apply the folding integration technique to a basic CSA. As a result, the detectable input charge dynamic range is expanded while maintaining all the key merits of a basic CSA. Although folding integration technique has already been successfully applied in CMOS image sensors, the working conditions and the signal characteristics are quite different for pixel readout LSIs for gas particle detectors. The related issues of the folding CSA for pixel readout LSIs, including the charge error due to finite gain of the preamplifier, the calibration method of charge error, and the dynamic range expanding efficiency, are addressed and analyzed. As a design example, this paper also demonstrates the application of the folding integration technique to a Qpix readout chip. This improves the charge measurement resolution and expands the detectable input dynamic range while maintaining all the key features. Calculations with SPICE simulations show that the dynamic range can be improved by 12 dB while the charge measurement resolution is improved by 10 times. The charge error during the folding operation can be corrected to less than 0.5%, which is sufficient for large input charge measurement.

This paper describes the analysis and design of low-noise analog circuits for a new architecture readout LSI, Qpix. In contrast to conventional readout LSIs using TOT method, Qpix measures deposited charge directly as well as time information. A preamplifier with a two-stage op amp and current-copy output buffers is proposed to realize these functions. This preamplifier is configured to implement a charge sensitive amplifier (CSA) and a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA). Design issues related to CSA are analyzed, which includes gain requirement of the op amp, stability and compensation of the two-stage cascode op amp, noise performance estimation, requirement for the resolution of the ADC and time response. The offset calibration method in the TIA to improve the charge detecting sensitivity is also presented. Also, some design principles for these analog circuits are presented. In order to verify the theoretical analysis, a 400-pixel high speed readout LSI: Qpix v.1 has been designed and fabricated in 180 nm CMOS process. Calculations and SPICE simulations show that the total output noise is about 0.31 mV (rms) at the output of the CSA and the offset voltage is less than 4 mV at the output of the TIA. These are attractive performances for experimental particle detector using Qpix v.1 chip as its readout LSI.