The investigation of weakly bound nuclei close to the particle driplines makes necessary the development of new spectroscopy devices with the capability of detecting charged particles and precisely determining their energy, angular distribution and nature. With this aim the ISOLDE Silicon Ball is under construction. It is a charged particle spectroscopy device with the requirements of high geometrical efficiency and broad energy range coverage, designed for the investigation of the exotic nuclei produced at ISOLDE and at other similar facilities. In order to allow for particle identification the simultaneous use of the Time of Flight (TOF) and Pulse Shape Discrimination (PSD) techniques is intended. Recoil tagging capabilities, suitable for transfer reactions to be performed at REX‐ISOLDE, should be foreseen for a future development. The design and realization of the first prototype, together with the first tests are reported. © 2003 American Institute of Physics