Abstract
X-ray detectors are used in a number of areas, namely in astronomy, microscopy, medical imaging diagnostic, biological science and material analysis. Demand is rising significantly within the industry for X-ray detectors that do not require a cooling system, e.g. pin-diode detectors. The elimination of the cooling system will facilitate the design of portable detectors. Development of this technology opens opportunities for the design of new instruments and the manufacture of more specialist detectors for customised applications. The rapid progress of the semiconductor industry has enabled the construction of more sophisticated electronic devices. This progress has also resulted in the creation of simulation tools, which enable researchers to simulate the processing of their devices. This method is more time and cost efficient as different models can be tested before actually investing in device processing in a laboratory. For this project we have used Silvaco simulation tools and packages to design nine different pin-diode X-ray detectors and evaluated their electrical performance before manufacturing them. Microfabrication technology has also been employed to make the pin-diode X-ray detectors that are capable of simultaneously detecting low X-ray energies (<10 keV) and measure the radiation energies with high sensitivity, speed and resolution. The X- ray detectors have been manufactured using the University of Surrey's cleanroom and laboratories. This project is run as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme in partnership with e2V Scientific Instruments (e2Vsi). To improve efficiency and productivity in industry, recent years have seen increased collaboration between industry and academia. New technologies have been commercialised with varying degrees of success and new applications have emerged, also benefiting academic research. e2Vsi is a manufacturing company specialising in the design, development and production of high resolution semiconductor X-ray detectors and the project objectives are therefore closely aligned with industry's needs.