Silicon carbide for high resolution X-ray detectors operating up to 100°C

✍ Scribed by Giuseppe Bertuccio; Roberto Casiraghi; Antonio Cetronio; Claudio Lanzieri; Filippo Nava

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 418 KB
• Volume: 522
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0168-9002
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2003.11.413

✦ Synopsis

This work presents experimental results on the possibility of high resolution X-ray spectroscopy in a wide temperature range, from room temperature up to 100 C without any cooling system, using Silicon Carbide (SiC) detectors. This capability arises from the very low noise of SiC detectors at high temperature because of their extremely low-leakage current density (20 pA=cm 2 at 24 C and 1 nA=cm 2 at 107 C with mean electric fields of 120 kV=cm). Spectra of 241 Am acquired by a pixel SiC detector are reported with equivalent noise energies of 315 eV FWHM at 27 C and 797 eV FWHM at 100 C: The contributions of the different noise sources of the detector and of the front-end electronics are determined and analyzed. The potential for SiC X-ray detectors and open issues in SiC technology are highlighted.