The PAM 102 pre-amplifier is specially targeted at timing sensitive applications such as Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) with fast photon detectors like Microchannel plate PMTs (MCP) or standard PMTs. Such detectors produce very small output pulses with extremely short pulse widths, usually too small for direct interfacing with TCSPC electronics or other counters. The pulse rise times (or fall times) are typically 150 to 500 ps, and the pulse widths (FWHM) are correspondingly small. Therefore, an amplifier with an appropriately fast rise time is needed between the detector and the timing discriminator of the TCSPC system. The rise time of an amplifier is directly related to its bandwidth. A fast rise time corresponds to a wide bandwidth. On the other hand, the wider the bandwidth, a pre-amplifier contributes more electronic noise to the signal. All amplitude noise on the signal adds to the timing jitter, when the signal is processed by a timing dicriminator of the TCSPC electronics. This is because the signal is not infinitely steep and any fluctuation in amplitude will be translated to a timing uncertainty inversely proportional to the steepnes dV/dt of the timing edge of the signal. There are, therefore, contradicting demands for the selection of the appropriate amplifier bandwidth. Best timing resolution is usually achieved when the amplifier rise time is comparable to the detector rise time. For common modern MCP detectors this corresponds to an optimum amplifier bandwidth of 1 to 2.5 GHz. This is why the PAM 102 is designed for a bandwidth in this range.

The PAM 102 is available in three different versions: Non-inverting, 25 dB Gain version for PMTs (P-version) and MCP-PMTs (M-version). Those two version differ in the threshold level for the overload protection signal. Another option is the 18 dB inverting version for PMTs (T-version) to be used in combination with the TimeHarp 200. All PAM 102 come with a wide range input (110-240V AC) power supply unit. Signal input and output are standard 50 Ohms SMA connectors. The housing is gold plated for maximum RF immunity.