Performance and Applications of the CdTe- and Si-XPAD3 photon counting 2D detector

Abstract

The XPAD3 is the third generation of a single photon counting chip developed in collaboration by SOLEIL Synchrotron, the Institut Néel and the Centre de Physique de Particules de Marseille (CPPM). The chip contains 9600 pixels of 130 μm side and a counting electronic chain with an adjustable low level threshold in each pixel. Imaging and detection performance (detective quantum efficiency, modulation transfer function and energy resolution) of the XPAD3 detectors hybridized with Si and CdTe sensors have been evaluated and compared using monochromatic synchrotron X-rays beam. A second version of the chip, optimized for pump-probe experiments, has been realized and successfully tested. Three 7.3 cm x 12.5 cm Si-XPAD3 imagers, composed of 8 silicon modules (7 chips per module) and one 2.1 cm x 3.1 cm CdTe-XPAD3 imager (4 chips) have been constructed and successfully used for synchrotron diffraction experiments and biomedical imaging. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd and SISSA.