Performance of a DEPFET pixel system for particle detection

Driven by the requirements of the ILC (International Linear Collider) vertex detector, a prototype system based on DEPFET pixels has been developed. The system utilizes a 64×128 pixel matrix with 28.5×36μm2 pixels, operated by dedicated chips for fast steering and readout. This paper will report on results for X-ray detection in the energy range between 6 and 40 keV. In addition, the system has been operated in a test beam and first results using the 6 GeV electron beam at the DESY synchrotron will be presented. The observed noise performance of the system will be compared with calculations. It will be shown that a noise figure of below ENC=100e- is achievable with DEPFET pixels for the ILC application leading to a signal-to-noise ratio of S/N>40 for sensors as thin as 50μm.