Electronic noise in charge sensitive preamplifiers for X-ray spectroscopy and the benefits of a SiC input JFET

A comprehensive summary and analysis of the electronic noise affecting the resolution of X-ray, γ-ray and particle counting spectroscopic systems which employ semiconductor detectors and charge sensitive preamplifiers is presented. The noise arising from the input transistor of the preamplifier and its contribution to the total noise is examined. A model for computing the noise arising from the front-end transistor is also presented and theoretical calculations comparing the noise contribution of transistors made of different materials are discussed, emphasizing the advantages of wide bandgap transistor technology. & 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).