Performance of an imaging system based on silicon pixel detectors of different thickness

To compare the characteristics of imaging systems based on pixel detectors of different thickness, we have measured the respective imaging capabilities, spatial resolution and spectroscopic characteristics. Each system consists of a single photon counting chip, developed in the framework of the Medipix Collaboration, bump bonded to a silicon detector. The detector is a matrix of 64 /spl times/ 64 square pixels, with 170 /spl mu/m pitch and thickness ranging from 300 to 800 /spl mu/m. As expected, the intrinsic detection efficiency increases with the detector thickness; nevertheless the spatial resolution can be affected by a charge sharing mechanism between adjacent pixels due to charge diffusion. The aim of the work reported in this paper is to demonstrate that, optimizing the settings of the image systems, we can increase the detection efficiency without losing in spatial resolution.