A new biasing scheme for ac coupled strip detectors has been developed
. Application of this scheme reduces the potential non-uniformity due
to variations in the strip leakage currents. The circuit comprises an
error amplifier that senses the strip current and compensates for the
voltage drop across the biasing resistor. The error amplifier is power
ed by floating power supplies referenced to the bias voltage. A circui
t was built that uses a low power amplifrer with femtoamp inputs. The
circuit regulates the strip potential to within few mV of the bias vol
tage for strip currents between 0 and 5 nA with a 1.2G Omega biasing r
esistor. The circuit has been tested with a CZT strip detector.