Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The Analog Spectral Imager for X-rays is a technology demonstrator of a small-pixel Hybrid Pixel Detector (HPD) designed for applications such as X-ray diffraction, synchrotron-based material science, and soft X-ray astrophysics requiring energy-resolved imaging. The ASIX architecture aims at mitigating the adverse effects of charge sharing, typical of small-pixel devices. In contrast to other frame-based photon counters or multi-threshold devices, ASIX employs, along with a 50 μ m pixel, an ultra-low-noise ( < 30 e − ENC), fully analog, asynchronous, single-photon readout, targeting 10 μ m spatial resolution and 350 eV FWHM at 8 keV within the same exposure. In 2025, we began developing a small scale ( ∼ 5 × 5 mm 2 ) HPD coupling a 300 μ m -thick, n-on-p, edgeless silicon sensor with 50 μ m pixels arranged in a hexagonal pattern to a newly designed 65-nm CMOS readout ASIC, featuring single-photon readout and on-chip analog to digital conversion, with a target rate capability of 1 0 8 p h / s / c m 2 . While the baseline for the ASIX R&D sensor is silicon for ≤ 20 keV operation, the design of the readout ASIC is compatible with High-Z materials sensors, such as cadmium-telluride or gallium-arsenide, for higher energies X-rays imaging, enabling potential extension to biomedical and preclinical research. This paper describes the ASIX imager architecture and reports on the development and testing of two Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), developed by coupling XPOL-III, a readily available 180-nm CMOS readout ASIC, to a 300 μ m thick silicon sensor with 50 μ m pixels and to a 750 μ m thick CdTe sensor with 100 μ m pixels, respectively. The MVPs achieved estimated energy resolution of 780 eV FWHM at 17.5 keV (CdTe), and 620 eV
Source: Frontiers in Sensors
Authors: Massimo Minuti, Luca Baldini, Roberto Beccherle, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Ashish Bisht, Maurizio Boscardin, Alessandro Brez, Paolo Bruschi, Marco Ceccanti, Matteo Centis Vignali, Luca Frontini, Luigi Gaioni, Omar Hammad Ali, Luca Latronico, Valentino Liberali, Guido Magazzù, Alberto Manfreda, Massimo Manghisoni, Fabio Morsani, Leonardo Orsini, Luca Palini, Melissa Pesce Rollins, Michele Pinchera, Massimo Piotto, Alessandro Profeti, Paolo Prosperi, Lodovico Ratti, Andrea Ria, Sabina Ronchin, Carmelo Sgrò, Stefano Silvestri, Gloria Spandre, Alberto Stabile, Gianluca Traversi, Gabriella Trucco, Monica Vasquez, Danny Zanardo
Institutions: Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, University of Pisa, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, University of Bergamo, University of Milan, University of Pavia, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics And Applications
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,353
OpenAlex ID: W4415685361