Hard x-ray response of pixellated CdZnTe detectors

Journal Article · Mon Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3153161· OSTI ID:21352269

Abbene, L ^[1]; Del Sordo, S ^[2]; Caroli, E ^[3]; Gerardi, G; Raso, G ^[1]; Caccia, S; Bertuccio, G ^[4]

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1. Dipartimento di Fisica e Tecnologie Relative (DIFTER), Universita di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Edificio 18, 90128 Palermo (Italy)
2. INAF/IASF Palermo, Via Ugo La Malfa 153, 90146 Palermo (Italy)
3. INAF/IASF Bologna, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna (Italy)
4. Dipartimento di Elettronica ed Informazione, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano (Italy)

In recent years, the development of cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe) detectors for x-ray and gamma ray spectrometry has grown rapidly. The good room temperature performance and the high spatial resolution of pixellated CdZnTe detectors make them very attractive in space-borne x-ray astronomy, mainly as focal plane detectors for the new generation of hard x-ray focusing telescopes. In this work, we investigated on the spectroscopic performance of two pixellated CdZnTe detectors coupled with a custom low noise and low power readout application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The detectors (10x10x1 and 10x10x2 mm{sup 3} single crystals) have an anode layout based on an array of 256 pixels with a geometric pitch of 0.5 mm. The ASIC, fabricated in 0.8 mum BiCMOS technology, is equipped with eight independent channels (preamplifier and shaper) and characterized by low power consumption (0.5 mW/channel) and low noise (150-500 electrons rms). The spectroscopic results point out the good energy resolution of both detectors at room temperature [5.8% full width at half maximum (FWHM) at 59.5 keV for the 1 mm thick detector; 5.5% FWHM at 59.5 keV for the 2 mm thick detector) and low tailing in the measured spectra, confirming the single charge carrier sensing properties of the CdZnTe detectors equipped with a pixellated anode layout. Temperature measurements show optimum performance of the system (detector and electronics) at T=10 deg.C and performance degradation at lower temperatures. The detectors and the ASIC were developed by our collaboration as two small focal plane detector prototypes for hard x-ray multilayer telescopes operating in the 20-70 keV energy range.

• OSTI ID: 21352269
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 105, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3153161; (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ANODES
CADMIUM TELLURIDES
CHARGE CARRIERS
ENERGY RESOLUTION
GAMMA SPECTROMETERS
GAMMA SPECTROSCOPY
HARD X RADIATION
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
KEV RANGE 10-100
MONOCRYSTALS
PHOTODETECTORS
READOUT SYSTEMS
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SPATIAL RESOLUTION
TELESCOPES
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K
X-RAY SPECTROMETERS
ZINC TELLURIDES
CADMIUM COMPOUNDS
CHALCOGENIDES
CRYSTALS
ELECTRODES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
ENERGY RANGE
IONIZING RADIATIONS
KEV RANGE
MATERIALS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MICROELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
RADIATIONS
RESOLUTION
SPECTROMETERS
SPECTROSCOPY
TELLURIDES
TELLURIUM COMPOUNDS
TEMPERATURE RANGE
X RADIATION
ZINC COMPOUNDS