Performance of a radiation hard 128 channel analogue front-end chip for the readout of a Si-based hybrid photon detector

The performance is described of a radiation hard front-end chip, the SCT128A-LC chip, developed for the readout of a Si based hybrid photon detector (HPD), which is part of a RICH detector to be run in a LHC experimental environment. The relatively low signal charge from single photo electrons, impinging on the Si pad sensor, put very stringent requirements on the noise performance of the front-end chip. An absolute noise calibration using X-ray sources and an /sup 241/Am /spl gamma/ source, was performed. It is demonstrated that sufficiently good signal to noise ratio can be obtained to use this chip for the read-out of an HPD in LHC experiments.