Innovative /Low Cost/Large Area Single Crystal Diamond X-Ray Detector (Phase I Final Report)
- UHV Technologies, Inc., Fort Worth, TX (United States)
- Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States)
The DOE SBIR Phase I project originally focused on growing and performing initial tests on single crystal diamond (SCD) membranes for high performance X-ray detectors, produced via diamond films growth process as described below, to identify the diamond membrane fabrication process with the best combination of X-ray interaction properties and low cost. The original Phase I work plan included the following objectives. 1. Growth of SCD films via hetero-epitaxial growth on the surface of 100 mm diameter / low cost A-plane single crystal sapphire substrates with a crystalline iridium (Ir) layer epitaxially grown on the surface, to induce high quality SCD films. 2. Growth of SCD films via hetero-epitaxial growth on the surface of 100 mm diameter / lower cost single crystal silicon (Si) substrates. The SCD films were going to be grown using microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) and hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) process, recently developed in a joint UHV-OBI DOE-funded R&D program (2015-2016), which demonstrated the feasibility of production high quality mechanically robust self supported microcrystalline diamond (MCD) membranes (25 x 25 mm) fabricated from MCD films grown on 100 mm diameter Si wafers. The idea of exploring both MPCVD and HFCVD to grow the SCD films was based determining which produces the best crystalline films. 3. Fabrication of large number of membranes doing lithography and back etching of the large area substrate with the large area SCD films, at localized places to define the membranes. 4. Preliminary testing of the new SCD membranes at the Advance Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, where O. Auciello, worked and performed experiments for 16 years (1996-2012) (This task was not possible in Phase I due to problems in the line to be used at the APS, which have been solved, and expected to be usable in Phase II. Prior growth of high quality MCD films on large area Si substrates strongly support the feasibility of growing high quality SCD films on 100 mm sapphire and Si substrates, to fabricate low X-ray absorption, high thermal conductivity, high mechanical strength, radiation hardness, wide indirect band gap, and high electron/hole mobility SCD membranes to enable a new generation of transmission X-ray detectors with < 50 μm pixel size, ≥ (90%) transparency for monochromatic X-ray beams of > 5keV energy, and a capability for measuring incident flux from 107 photons/s to 1016 photons/sec per pixel with ≤ 5% error, producing images at >10 Hz. Phase II will focus on integration of SCD membranes with a commercial fast multi-channel high-voltage analog switch in the market today (HV2701 from Supertex Inc.), capable of achieving a maximum channel switching frequency of 200 kHz. However, during the R&D in Phase I, it was decided to explore also growing microcrystalline diamond (MCD) films on 100 mm diameter Si wafers and produce MCD membranes to compare performance with SCD membranes, The rationale for doing the added R&D was based on the consideration that large grains (≥ 3 microns) MCD films can be grown directly on low cost Si wafers to produce MCD membranes, which if performing within a factor of 2 compared to SCD membranes, would provide a simpler lower cost fabrication process for producing low cost suitable performance diamond-based X-ray detectors.
- Research Organization:
- UHV Technologies, Inc., Fort Worth, TX (United States); Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Engineering & Technology. Office of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0019698
- OSTI ID:
- 1646557
- Type / Phase:
- SBIR (Phase I)
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-UHV-SC0019698
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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