Patent ID: 7173230

Claim:
An electromagnetic radiation detector comprising: a detector configured to detect electromagnetic radiation; an amplifier stage coupled to the detector, the amplifier stage including: an operational amplifier having an inverting input and an output, wherein the detector is connected to the inverting input of the operational amplifier and the operational amplifier has a open loop gain of about 25 dB to about 50 dB and a unity gain bandwidth of about 1 MHz to about 1 GHz, and a capacitive structure coupled between the output and the inverting input of the operational amplifier to cancel at least a portion of an intrinsic capacitance of the detector, wherein the capacitive structure has a capacitance of about 5 fF to about 100 fF; and a biasing stage coupled to the detector and the amplifier stage, wherein the biasing stage is configured to apply a voltage to the amplifier stage to charge the capacitive feedback and to reverse bias the detector; and wherein characteristics of at least one of said capacitive feedback and said amplifier stage cause a reduction in at least one of 1/f noise and kT/C noise in said electromagnetic radiation detector.