HIgh Rate X-ray Fluorescence Detector
- XIA LLC
The purpose of this project was to develop a compact, modular multi-channel x-ray detector with integrated electronics. This detector, based upon emerging silicon drift detector (SDD) technology, will be capable of high data rate operation superior to the current state of the art offered by high purity germanium (HPGe) detectors, without the need for liquid nitrogen. In addition, by integrating the processing electronics inside the detector housing, the detector performance will be much less affected by the typically noisy electrical environment of a synchrotron hutch, and will also be much more compact than current systems, which can include a detector involving a large LN2 dewar and multiple racks of electronics. The combined detector/processor system is designed to match or exceed the performance and features of currently available detector systems, at a lower cost and with more ease of use due to the small size of the detector. In addition, the detector system is designed to be modular, so a small system might just have one detector module, while a larger system can have many you can start with one detector module, and add more as needs grow and budget allows. The modular nature also serves to simplify repair. In large part, we were successful in achieving our goals. We did develop a very high performance, large area multi-channel SDD detector, packaged with all associated electronics, which is easy to use and requires minimal external support (a simple power supply module and a closed-loop water cooling system). However, we did fall short of some of our stated goals. We had intended to base the detector on modular, large-area detectors from Ketek GmbH in Munich, Germany; however, these were not available in a suitable time frame for this project, so we worked instead with pnDetector GmbH (also located in Munich). They were able to provide a front-end detector module with six 100 m^2 SDD detectors (two monolithic arrays of three elements each) along with associated preamplifiers; these detectors surpassed the performance we expected to get from the Ketek detectors, however they are housed in a sealed module, which does not offer the ease of repair and expandability wed hoped to achieve with the Ketek SDD's. Our packaging efforts were quite successful, as we came up with a very compact way to mount the detector and to house the associated electronics, as well as a very effective way to reliably take out the heat (from the electronics as well as the detector's Peltier coolers) without risk of condensation and without external airflow or vibration, which could create problems for the target applications. While we were able to design compact processing electronics that fit into the detector assembly, they are still at the prototype stage, and would require a significant redesign to achieve product status. We have not yet tested this detector at a synchrotron facility; we do still plan on working with some close contacts at the nearby Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) to get some testing with the beam (using existing commercial electronics for readout, as the integrated processor is not ready for use).
- Research Organization:
- XIA LLC
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-06ER84407
- OSTI ID:
- 1079831
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/84407
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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