A large-area monolithic array of silicon drift detectors for medical imaging

Monolithic arrays of silicon drift detectors (SDDs) have been recently proposed to be used with scintillators for high-position-resolution γ-ray imaging applications. Thanks to the low electronics noise due to the small value of the output capacitance, the SDD offers better noise performances with respect to conventional photodiodes of the same geometry. Small monolithic arrays of SDDs have been used as photodetector of the scintillation light in a first prototype of Anger Camera for γ-ray imaging characterized by an intrinsic resolution better than 0.3 mm. In this work, we present a new large-area monolithic array of SDDs. It consists of a single chip composed of 77 single hexagonal units, each one with an active area of 8.7 mm2, for a total active area of the device of 6.7 cm2. It represents the largest monolithic array of SDDs with on-chip JFETs produced up to now for X-ray and γ-ray detection. The results achieved in the experimental characterization of a first prototype of the detector array are presented, both with X and visible photons. The energy resolution measured at 6 keV with the single unit of the array is of 142 eV at −10 °C, while a QE>90% was measured at λ=550 nm.