FastIC: A Highly Configurable ASIC for Fast Timing Applications

This work presents the 8-channel FastIC ASIC developed in CMOS 65 nm technology suitable for the readout of positive and negative polarity sensors with intrinsic amplification in High Energy Physics experiments, Positron Emission Tomography and other Time-of-Flight systems. The front-end can be configured to readout each input channel individually or perform analog summation of up to 4 single-ended channels before discrimination in view of extending precise timing to large and segmented areas. The outputs encode the Time-Of-Arrival information and linear Energy measurement in the 5 μA − 25 mA input range with a measured linearity error below 3%, and a power consumption of 12 mW/Ch with default settings. Measurements of Single Photon Time Resolution (SPTR) with a red-light laser source and a Hamamatsu SiPM S13360-3050CS have shown ~140 ps FWHM. Coincidence Time Resolution (CTR) measurements with LSO:Ce:Ca 0.2% measuring 2 × 2 × 5 mm3 coupled to the same sensor resulted in ~ 104 ps FWHM. The FastIC is compared with the HRFlexToT ASIC under the same conditions, obtaining an SPTR and CTR improvement of 12.8% and 11.4%, respectively.