A low-cost, ultra-fast and low-noise preamplifier for micro channel plates

A compact, low-cost, ultra fast, low distortion and low noise preamplifier suitable for data-acquisition applications utilization micro channel plate (MCP) detectors has been built with a new monolithic integrated circuit amplifier in two stages. The gain, bandwidth and noise are optimized to the MCP performance in order to achieve the best rise time, response and stability with minimal jitter. The use of commercial components makes this instrument very low in cost and easy to build.