Performance and Applications of Room Temperature Silicon Passivated Ion-Implanted X-Ray Detectors

Silicon detectors exhibiting reverse currents of less than 1 nA cm-2/100 μm at 20°C have been manufactured in a reproducible way using photo-engraving and ion-implantation techniques. For use as X-ray detectors only aluminium and epoxies are used for the mount in order to avoid any parasitic fluorescence. Typical energy resolution at 20°C is 1.3 keV at 10-20 keV for 10 mm2 active area detectors. The main contribution to the performance is the temperature stability. Applications developped are a system for X-ray fluorescence analysis of metal ores and a prototype for environmental monitoring using 16 multiplexed Si detectors with an overall resolution of 1.8 keV in the 10-20 KeV region for the total 400 mm2 area.