Introduction

The Charge Detector Array project was initially concieved by Prof. Keith Birkinshaw as a detector for mass spectroscopy.

Initial work on the detector was carried out in the late 1980's before the mass spectroscopy project started in 1990 under the aegis of the DTI Link program in collaboration with VG Analytical (now Micromass). This project was funded to some £1,073,000.

From the end of the project in 1995 until the beginning of the REES project in 2001, various small amounts of funding were used to provide support and enable the research to continue. Notably, in 1997 a number of samples of the detector ASIC were purchased for experimental work by the Dr M Sinha working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, USA

In 2001 the project was awarded support from EPSRC to develop the detector for use in electron spectroscopy. The project was initiated under the acronym REES (REal time Electron Spectroscopy) and was supported by EPSRC for £570K. After the conclusion of the project in 2004, the project was reviewed by the internal EPSRC process and rated as 'Outstanding' and 'Internationally Leading'.