We describe a technique to improve microchannel plate (MCP) detector dynamic range and lifetime by means of a novel technology, an “active anode” employing atomic layer deposition (ALD) to provide an additional gain stage after the MCP.
The ALD technique allows complex surfaces to be conformally coated with ultra thin films in a wide variety of materials. ALD has already been shown to benefit...
The separation of neutron and gamma signals through exploitation of the pulse shape discrimination (PSD) phenomena is a trusted technique, but with the advent of PSD sensitive plastic scintillators the prospect for mass deployment in homeland security or environmental radiation scenarios is increased. In an equally progressive technological advance the silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) is rapidly...
Vacuum phototriodes (VPT) have been used for many years in particle physics experiments. For example, they were used in the OPAL experiment at LEP and are currently used in the endcap Electromagnetic Calorimeter of the CMS experiment, at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Since the VPT is a fast, proximity focused device, the anode or dynode can be subdivided into several independent channels...
Electron Multiplying Charge Coupled Devices (EMCCDs) have revolutionised low light level imaging, providing highly sensitive detection capabilities. Implementing Electron Multiplication (EM) in Charge Coupled Devices (CCD) can increase the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and lead to an improvement in low light level application. With the increase in demand for CMOS sensors with comparable or...
A number of portable gamma cameras for medical imaging use CdTe based detectors. These can offer much better spectral resolution than scintillator based devices.
A CdTe pixelated detector has been coupled to a single photon counting, spectroscopic, readout ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) that has been developed at theRutherford Appleton Laboratory for use with small pixel CdTe...
The STFC‘s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) has been characterising high-flux capable CdZnTe [1]. This detector material has potential use in a number of high-flux industrial applications such as medical and security imaging. The next generation of free electron laser light sources, like the European XFEL or SLAC LCS, also require detectors able to image at high x-ray fluxes and high...
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) upgrade planned for 2026, will allow to develop new type of sensor to replace the ATLAS Inner Tracker. For this upgrade, the HV/HR CMOS technology has been studied because of his low price, the limitation of the scattering (reduction of the material budget), the good tracking precision (pixels sizes) and the charge collection by drift allow a high radiation...
In high energy particle physics, accelerator- and detector-upgrades always go hand in hand. Along with an anticipated improvement of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to reach and exceed the luminosity of L = 2 x10^34 cm^-2s ^-1 during Run 2 until 2023, a new pixel detector has been installed in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector early 2017 to cope with the new conditions. This so-called...
Clock-Induced Charge (CIC) is a noise source commonly ignored in standard CCD technology since the net generation per frame is typically negligible compared to the noise introduced by the output circuit. For Electron Multiplication based technologies such as EM-CCDs, the sensitivity of the image section is reduced to the single electron level and so any spuriously generated signal can...
The high luminosity upgrade of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) foreseen for 2026 will provide an instantaneous luminosity of $5 \cdot 10^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$ and an average pile-up of 200 collisions per bunch crossing.
To reduce the effects of pile-up on the physics analyses, both the ATLAS and CMS experiments are planning to implement dedicated systems to measure the time of...
IMIC is a Monolithic Active Pixels Sensor prototype designed for the MAPSSIC project, which aims at developing wireless intracerebral probes dedicated to the local counting of low energy positrons in situ in the brain of awake and freely moving rats. Former experiments using a passive PIXSIC circuit validated the proof of concept, but have also clearly demonstrated the need to improve...
The lack of international protocols for the evaluation of positron emission mammography (PEM) systems has led us to design image quality phantoms based on the average compressed breast dimensions and the most common lesion sizes. The main body phantom consists of a polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) cylinder (63 mm diameter, 50 mm height) which can be filled with a small amount of activity to...
A neutron detection element consisting of circular cathode bumps was developed for two-dimensional neutron measurement, and an irradiation experiment was performed using a Cf-252 neutron source. The element has triangularly arranged small-sized circular cathode bumps, and the bumps are linked together in x- and y-directions for the detection of incident neutrons. The sensitive area was 128 ×...
A high spatial resolution, a large-area position-sensitive scintillation neutron detector module has been developed for a new time-of-flight Laue single crystal diffractometer to be constructed in the J-PARC MLF. We have developed a prototype detector that has a spatial resolution of 2.5 mm with a neutron-sensitive area of 320 x 320 mm2 based on a scintillator / wavelength shifting fiber...
High-resolution Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis (HERDA) is one of the promising methods of quantitative analysis of hydrogen. The depth distribution of hydrogen can be obtained from the energy of recoiled hydrogen ions by irradiation of ion beams. HERDA consists of a magnet and a position sensitive detector for detecting the recoiled ions. Micro channel plates (MCP) are mainly used as the...
Silicon photodiodes are very useful devices as X-ray beam monitors in synchrotron radiation beamlines. In order to be used in transmissive mode and given the absorption properties of silicon, the devices must be thinner than 10 um to achieve X-ray transmission higher than 90% for photon energies above 10 keV. On the other hand, bulk silicon segmented devices are also of interest for astronomy...
A new pinned photodiode (PPD) CMOS image sensor (CIS) has been developed and characterised. The sensor can be fully depleted by means of reverse bias applied to the substrate, and the principle of operation is applicable to very thick sensitive volumes. Additional n-type implants under the in-pixel p-wells, called Deep Depletion Extension (DDE), have been added to the manufacturing process in...
In the present work, the gas gain curves have been measured in the range from the ionization chamber regime to the breakdown limit in Ne – N2 gas compositions (2 – 20% N2, also in pure Ne) at various mixtures pressures (50 – 1800 hPa).
The measured gas gain curves have been fitted to the Diethorn, Williams & Sara and of Aoyama gain models to determine the characteristic mixture constants like...
Position sensitive detectors have many applications in measurement technology. In this paper we investigate the influence of a trench in the vicinity of the p-n junction of the silicon detector. The trenches were fabricated by inductive coupled plasma (ICP) etching technology. Both, the detectors with and without trenches were processed at the same wafer for comparable results. Further, we...
Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) have been the detector of choice for imaging and spectroscopy in space missions for several decades, such as those being used for the Euclid VIS instrument and baselined for the SMILE SXI. Despite the many positive properties of CCDs, such as the high quantum efficiency and low noise, when used in a space environment the detectors suffer damage from the...
Belle II experiment will use a novel type of vertex detector. The detector is based on DEPFET sensor technology which allows construction of 70 micrometer thin sensor modules. A module consists only of silicon components. No mechanical support or cooling structures are needed in the sensor part exposed to particles. DEPFET sensor is operated in rolling shutter mode, with frame period of 20...
In this contribution we present a systematic study of single anode cylindrical detectors in gaseous Xenon using trimethylamine (TMA) as quencher gas. The choice of quench gas can have a significant effect on the gas gain and energy resolution. Gas gains (55Fe has been used as the radiation source) and energy resolutions for 109Cd radiation source (Ag Kα line of 22.1 keV X-rays) were measured...
We describe a multi-anode microchannel plate (MCP) detector with a 16 x 16 discrete pixel array designed for 100 picosecond single photon timing at count rates in the MHz range. The pixel array is instrumented using a 256 channel PETsys TOF ASIC evaluation kit, capable of single photon timing to better than 100 picoseconds and maximum count rate of 640 kHz/channel.
The timing performance of...
The Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics (ATHENA) mission is a major upcoming ESA space-based X-ray observatory due to be launched in 2028, aiming to map the early universe and observe distant black holes. Instrument background from primary solar particles, cosmic rays and the secondaries produced in the shielding are expected to constitute a large fraction of the total noise in...
Silicon pixel detectors are at the core of the current and planned upgrade of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). As the closest detector component to the interaction point, these detectors will be subjected to a significant amount of radiation over their lifetime: prior to the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), the innermost layers will receive a fluence in excess of 1015...
The construction of the new Japanese super flavour factory has been finalized and the machine is ready for commissioning by the end of 2017. This new e$^+$e$^−$ machine (SuperKEKB) will deliver an instantaneous luminosity of 8×10$^{35}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{−1}$, which is 40 times higher than the world record set by KEKB. In order to be able to fully exploit the increased number of events and provide...
X-ray luminescence optical tomography (XLOT) has been proposed to study problems related to deep-tissue small-animal imaging. In this technique, luminescent nanoparticles emit optical photons when irradiated with a collimated x-ray beam. The use of this modality for small-animal imaging requires an accurate knowledge of the energy deposition map inside the subject for optimization of the...
The ESA JUpiter ICy moon Explorer (JUICE) mission hosts the JANUS instrument, a planetary imager for the observation of Jupiter and Jovian moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto, operating from the year 2030. The JANUS focal plane comprises a 4T 3Mpixel backside-illuminated CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) from Teledyne e2v, which is currently subject to high-energy proton, gamma, electron and heavy-ion...
In this paper we present a novel approach which employs a thin large area CMOS image sensor to implement an upstream in-vivo dosimeter for intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).
Cancer treatments such as IMRT or volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) require increasingly complex methods to verify the accuracy and precision of the treatment delivery. In vivo dosimetry based on measurements...
The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is a multi-purpose detector constructed in order to study high-energy particle collisions in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The pixel detector is the inner part of the all-silicon charged particle tracking system in CMS. It plays a vital role in the seeding of the track reconstruction algorithms used at CMS, and in the reconstruction of primary...
A number of harsh industrial environments require radiation detectors which can operate at temperatures in excess of 200 degrees Celsius and may, in addition, require significant tolerance of the sensor to ionising radiation. Two application areas of current importance are the monitoring of radiation near high-pressure steam pipes in nuclear reactors used for electricity generation, and...
In order to meet the requirements of the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), it will be necessary to replace the current tracker of the ATLAS experiment. Therefore, a new full-silicon tracking detector is planned, the so-called Inner Tracker (ITk). The use of quad chip modules is intended in its pixel region. These modules consist of a silicon sensor that forms a unit together with four readout...
Pulsed neutron transmission spectroscopic radiography is attractive technique in the research fields of energy-resolved neutron radiography. The imaging technique is based on the energy-analysis of neutrons by time-of-flight (TOF) method. RIKEN RANS (RIKEN Accelerator-driven compact Neutron Source) produces 7 MeV proton beam and Be target pulsed neutron source. The beam current is about 5...
Soft X-ray CCD detectors are a valuable resource in a variety of fields including spectroscopy, astronomy and nuclear science. For astronomy in particular, the CCD sensitivity can have a dramatic effect on observation time and the attainable signal to noise ratio. Quantum efficiency (QE) is the standard metric used for CCD sensitivity, but it can be defined in multiple ways. The photon...
Space based detectors such as Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) are subject to a damaging radiation environment. High energy particles, such as protons, can displace atoms in the CCDs regular silicon lattice and create defects that trap signal charge and degrade the image. This document describes the radiation induced damage on three e2v CCD47-20 after room temperature proton irradiation to 5x10^9...
The X-ray astronomical telescopes in use today, such as Chandra and XMM Newton, use X-ray grating spectrometers to probe the high energy physics of the Universe. These instruments typically use reflective optics for focussing onto gratings that disperse incident X-rays across a detector, often a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD). The X-ray energy is determined from the position that it was detected...
Low Gain Avalanche detectors (LGAD) are a type of Avalanche Photodiode with gain of approximately ten. LGADs have a very fast
response time, order of picoseconds, and excellent position resolution. This makes them useful in many applications, including tracking for particle physics and synchrotron applications. Coupling of LGAD devices to single photon counting pixel electronics enables...
LUVMI (LUnar Volatiles Mobile Instrumentation) is a lunar rover mission concept funded by H2020. The payload is a volatiles sampler and analyser which will accurately measure lunar volatile distribution over a wide area, including in Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSR). The 24 month project will develop to TRL6 instruments that together form a smart modular mobile payload that could be flight...
Authors: James Ivory, Konstantin Stefanov, Andrew Holland
The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, UK
GravityCam is a proposed ground based telescope capable of increasing the angular precision of measurements 3-5 fold from existing telescopes. This is achieved through the use of Lucky Imaging, whereby a large number of short exposure images are taken at a high frame rate and used to...
Since the scintillation detectors have inherent limitation in spatial resolution, recently, researchers tried to improve the quantum efficiency (QE) of position sensitive gas detectors. This imaging system usually consist of a bulk converter and amplification layer. But a bulk converter has its own limitation. For gamma rays, the converter thickness should be increased to achieve a greater...
The spatial resolution of an indirect x-ray imaging detector is degraded by the light spreading phenomenon in a scintillation layer. In a position sensitive detector with a thicker x-ray converter, for improving the spatial resolution, microstructured scintillator with optically isolated structures is used. In this case the optical crosstalk between neighboring pixels is prevented, which is...
ESA’s JUICE (JUpiter ICy moon Explorer) spacecraft is an L-class mission destined for the Jovian system in 2030. Its primary goals are to ‘investigate the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life’ and ‘how does the solar system work’. The JANUS camera, an instrument on JUICE, is using a 4T Back Illuminated CMOS image sensor, the CIS115 constructed by Teledyne e2v.
JANUS...
The novel X-ray sources that are based on plasma generated from femtosecond lasers will allow for time resolved X-ray diffraction structural studies on a femtosecond time scale. The principle of the laser driven plasma sources shares similarity with the well known laboratory Metal jet sources. Instead of electron beam, the liquid metal is exposed to an intense laser beam. The ELI beamlines...
This poster contribution reports on the production of an array of active edge silicon sensors as a prototype of a large array. Four Medipix3RX.1 chips were bump bonded to four single chip sized Advacam active edge n-on-n sensors. These detectors were then mounted into a 2 by 2 array and tested on B16 at Diamond Light Source with an x-ray beam spot of 2um. The results from these tests,...
