High-purity silicon radiation-sensor array

A radiation-sensor array designed and fabricated on high-purity silicon (substrate resistivity 4 KΩ cm ±35%) with separate x- and y-readout addresses is presented. The operation of the device is based on both the resistive and the capacitive coupling of the elements in a matrix of sensing diodes. A 3x3 matrix of 0.25 mm2 elements has been integrated as a prototype. The columnar elements are resistively coupled to one output connection through the use of highly-doped polysilicon structures, while utilization of the double-layer metalization technique provides capacitive coupling of those elements lying in the same row to a separate output connection. Although the processing requirements included integrated-circuit fabrication techniques not commonly employed in the processing of silicon-radiation sensors, the array demonstrated good characteristics. Experimental results confirmed two-dimensional position detection with minimal crosstalk. (orig.)