Simulation and Fabrication of Gated Silicon Drift X-Ray Detector Operated by Peltier Cooling

• Published in: The open electrical and electronic engineering journal 2013-01, Vol.7 (1), p.1-8
• Main Authors: Matsuura, Hideharu, Hullinger, Derek, Decker, Keith W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1874-1290; 1874-1290
• DOI: 10.2174/1874129001307010001

A proposed simply structured gated silicon (Si) drift X-ray detector operated using Peltier cooling and only a single high-voltage source is investigated. Because the device structure is much simpler than that of commercial Si drift detectors (SDDs), which require at least two high-voltage sources, the cost of the X-ray detection system can be reduced. The absorption of cadmium X-ray fluorescence photons (energy: 23.1 keV) in 0.3-mm-thick Si is only 19% in commercial SDDs. Toward realizing detectors with thicker Si substrates, we simulate the electric potential distribution in the proposed detector with a Si substrate having thickness of 0.625 mm and resistivity of 10 kΩ·cm, and we perform fundamental experiments on a fabricated prototype. The simulation result is in good agreement with the experimental result that the effective active area of the detector is approximately 18 mm2 by using incident X-rays passed through a 0.1-mm-diameter pinhole. An energy resolution of 145 eV at 5.9 keV is experimentally obtained from an 55 Fe source at -38 ° C.