Working Principle

Cross section of a SDD detector chip

The XFlash® Detector is an energy dispersive X-ray detector based on the silicon drift chamber principle (SDD). The detector crystal is moderately cooled by vibration free thermo-electric coolers; any generated heat is dissipated by passive convection without the need for additional cooling.

A monolithically integrated on-chip FET acts as a signal amplifier and supports unprecedented energy resolution. The sideward depletion of the active detector volume in connection with the integrated drift structure provides an extremely small detector capacitance that enables the use of fast signal processing techniques. The pulse throughput of XFlash® Detectors is higher than that of other energy dispersive systems by more than an order of magnitude.

Schematic of the SDD working principle

A super thin radiation entrance window separates the sensitive detector area from the ambient atmosphere and guarantees a good transmission for the X-rays of interest.