This tutorial paper discusses the basic parameters which determine the accuracy of timing measurements and their effect in a practical application, specifi cally timing with thin-.surface barrier detectors. The discussion focusses on properties of the detec tor, low-noise amplifiers, trigger circuits and time converters. New material presented in this paper includes bipolar transistor input stages with noise performance superior to currently available FETs, "noiseless" input terminations in sub-nanosecond pre amplifiers and methods using transmission lines to •-,>t;pie the detector to remotely mounted preamplifiers. Trigger circuits are characterized in terms of effec tive rise time, equivalent input noise and residual jitter.
1-INTRODUCTIONFast timing with semiconductor detectors is a many-faceted subject, where the multitude of relevant delays can easily obscure the fact that the perfor mance of aM timing systems is determined by only a few basic principles. The purpose of this tutorial paper is to point out these principles ind demonstrate how the> apply to a specific situation. For clarity this demonstration will be restricted to thin surface ba-rier detectors. This choice is justified by the feet that systems using these detectors not only pro vide the best time resolution currently being obtained with semiconductor detectors, but that they also have the potential for significant improvement.A typical nuclear detector system usinr surface barrier detectors is the AE-E time-of-flight te'escope. Figure 1 shows the basic configuration of such a system: a thin transmission detector (AE) and a stop detector (E) a>-e spaced so that particles pas sing through the sta-*t detector traverse a distance s before impinging on the stop detector. The time-offlight t between the two detectors is measured, which, together with the energy E measured in the stop detecmits calcu^tion of the particle mass:
AE DETECTOR E DETECTOR pen•-*-E Time resolution of 50 to 100 ps is being obtained routinely by several experimental groups.^-' In orde* -to recognize and understand the limiting factors in these measurements it is necessary to systematically eva-uate the contributions of all components in the timing system.
-SYSTEM COMPONENTS AND BASIC CRITERIAThe basic semiconductor detector timing channel is snown in Fig. 3. Its components a-e: 1. A detector, which produces a c-jri-ent or vo'tage pulse when a particle deposits energy in its sensi tive vo'ume.?. A series of amplifiers, which present the appro priate impedance to the detector and amplify the detector signal by an amount sufficient to drive the trigger circuit.3. A trigger (often called a discriminator}, which furnishes a normalized logic pulse with a well defin ed time relationship to the 'variable) input signal and ultimately to the physical cause of this signa 1 , i.e. the particle impinging on the detector.