Recommended Literature

Practical Info

1. How to design your circuit schematic and layout a PCB: Eagle v7.2.0 is the (free) software of choice. Friendly folks at sparkfun.com have put together a detailed tutorial → find it here. Google many other forums devoted to the finer points you will eventually run into. In practice, you rarely need to start from first principle. Usually you start with the board design of somebody else before you, and tweak the details to optimize.

Currently live project

Make a working BIAS-T for RF amplifier

1. A basic design article for design of Bias-T's to be used with Low Noise Amplifiers: article here
2. Keywords to look for: RF LNA, bias-T

Calibration of amplifiers with Transconductance amplifier

A transconductance amp (generically called an OTA) converts voltage to current.

• Our detector signal is typically a current signal
• We use a transimpedance amplifier to amplify the current signal to a voltage - only voltage signals are observable on an oscilloscope
• therefore to calibrate a transimpedance amplifier, we need a source that generates a precisely shaped current pulse

Broad design requirements:

1. Ideal current pulse must be a few microA, lasting about 5ns to mimic the true detector response (i.e. a few fC of total charge)
2. output impedance must be 50Ω strictly
3. Ideally, should run from a unipolar supply (think a pocketable device running off a 9V battery). Since it only produces pulses on demand, even a moderate ~mA current consumption will make the unit last for long time.
4. Essentially we want a device that we can use in the field to perform an end-to-end test of detector->amplifier->cable(250m)->readout

LM13700 from Texas Instruments dual OTA IC is a good place to start with breadboarded prototypes. Here are some literature links:

• Datasheet from TI
• Supplement to datasheet
• NutsVolts magazine Article Part 1 (on the LM13600 and <" Part 2 (on the LM13700

Front-End Electronics

1. PhD thesis on Low noise preamp+amp chain design for capacitive load sensors

High speed, low noise signal transmission

• IBM Signal Transmission Tutorials: Part A and Part B. Note: the tutorials have a lot of mathematics - whose details can be safely ignored by a beginner! At the beginner's level it is usually sufficient to use thumb-rules and general common-sense in board layout.
• Optical distribution of RF for the NLC

Ohmic contacts to Diamond (will be relevant later

• [2013] MTech thesis from Tokyo Inst of Tech on Au/Pt/Ti contact formation to diamond here
• [2010] Si/Al ohmic contacts to diamond. Electronics Letters Vol 46 No. 11 here
• [2009] MTech thesis from Univ. Basel on fabrication and characterization of Ohmic contacts to GaAs structures here
• [2006] Schottky contacts to single crystal CVD diamond here
• [1990] North Carolina State Tech note on Mo/Au contact formation to diamond here
• [1967 - old!] Electrical contacts to diamond Proceedings of Oklahoma Academy of Sciences 1967 here
• Chapter 8 of the book: Diamond : electronic properties and applications edited by Lawrence S. Pan and Don R. Kania Boston : Kluwer Academic Pub., 1995 1995 Available in IIT B Central Library, and also on Google Books
• Bristol University CVD diamond group has many useful resources and publications. In particular this thesis chapter has useful information and references.