sMDT Detectors Read-Out in 28nm technology

A Fast Tracker analog front end for small-diameter Muon Drift Tube (sMDT) detectors is hereby presented. The analog channel has been integrated in 28 nm CMOS technology and significantly improves state-of-the-art sMDT read-out systems thanks to a novel signal processing technique exploited to extract information from sMDT detectors speeding-up the processing time and to limit fake events detection. The main idea is to implement a fast reset of all continuous-time analog stages that occurs just after the charge (i.e. event) detection. This has two main advantages for sMDT read-out: fast processing and negligible signal corruption due to non-relevant pile-up signals. Nonetheless, the realization in 28nm bulk-CMOS technology implies challenges for analog design but advantages in terms of speed, area occupancy and radiation hardness. The proposed analog channel occupies 0.03 mm2 and consumes 1.9 mW from 1 V supply voltage.