Design and fabrication process of silicon micro-calorimeters on simple SOI technology for X-ray spectral imaging
✍ Scribed by A. Aliane; P. Agnese; C. Pigot; J.-L. Sauvageot; F. de Moro; H. Ribot; A. Gasse; V. Szeflinski; Y. Gobil
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2008
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 490 KB
- Volume
- 594
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0168-9002
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✦ Synopsis
Several successful development programs have been conducted on infra-red bolometer arrays at the ''Commissariat a `l'Energie Atomique'' (CEA-LETI Grenoble) in collaboration with the CEA-SAp (Saclay); taking advantage of this background, we are now developing an X-ray spectro-imaging camera for next generation space astronomy missions, using silicon only technology. We have developed monolithic silicon micro-calorimeters based on implanted thermistors in an improved array that could be used for future space missions. The 8 Â 8 array consists of a grid of 64 suspended pixels fabricated on a silicon on insulator (SOI) wafer. Each pixel of this detector array is made of a tantalum (Ta) absorber, which is bound by means of indium bump hybridization, to a silicon thermistor. The absorber array is bound to the thermistor array in a collective process. The fabrication process of our detector involves a combination of standard technologies and silicon bulk micro-machining techniques, based on deposition, photolithography and plasma etching steps. Finally, we present the results of measurements performed on these four primary building blocks that are required to create a detector array up to 32 Â 32 pixels in size.