Shaping circuit for improving linearity, bandwidth, and dynamic range in ToT-based detectors

The quantitative measurement of energy deposits in particle detectors, particularly in calorimeters, is usually accomplished with the help of Analog-to-Digital converters (ADCs) due to their precision, wide measurement range, and good linearity. However, drawbacks such as power consumption, data volume, and bandwidth limit their use in the next generation of high-energy physics experiments. Time-over-threshold (ToT) systems offer simplicity, low power consumption, easy integrability, and wide bandwidth, but they lack precision, linearity, and dynamic range. In this work, we propose a shaper circuit that improves the weaknesses of ToT systems without sacrificing performance. We simulated and implemented the concept in the readout system of the Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector of the Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR.