Development and characterization of the latest X-ray SOI pixel sensor for a future astronomical mission

We have been developing active pixel sensors based on silicon-on-insulator technology for future X-ray astronomy missions. Recently we fabricated the new prototype named “XRPIX2”, and investigated its spectroscopic performance. For comparison and evaluation of different chip designs, XRPIX2 consists of 3 pixel types: Small Pixel, Large Pixel 1, and Large Pixel 2. In Small Pixel, we found that the gains of the 68% pixels are within 1.4% of the mean value, and the energy resolution is 656 eV (FWHM) for 8 keV X-rays, which is the best spectroscopic performance in our development. The pixel pitch of Large Pixel 1 and Large Pixel 2 is twice as large as that of Small Pixel. Charge sharing events are successfully reduced for Large Pixel 1. Moreover Large Pixel 2 has multiple nodes for charge collection in a pixel. We confirmed that the multi-nodes structure is effective to increase charge collection efficiency.