An advanced APD-based spectroscopic radiation monitor. Final Technical Report

A highly sensitized radiation imager is under development through DOE SBIR contract DE-FG02-99ER 82866. This imager will be extraordinarily useful to the DOE in its decontamination and decommissioning activities. The basis for this advanced, state-of-the-art radiation imager is a new type of photon detector, an avalanche photodiode (APD). Only recently has APD technology advanced to the point where it is useful for applications like the radiation imager. To date, the major drawback in the use of avalanche photodiodes was the inability to use many of them in a single application because of the need for many channels of readout, complicated device holders, and dead space between detectors. RMD has solved this dilemma through the development of compact arrays of APDs. Additionally, the fabrication technique has been refined to the point were the bulk production of large quantities of arrays is now feasible. These new APD arrays have excellent application flexibility. The capability to tailor the detector properties; such as size, sensitivity, pixellation, and pitch make APD arrays excellent candidates for a variety of photosensing schemes previously dominated by photomultiplier tubes (PMT). In fact, at RMD it is currently possible to make APD arrays with 2-mm2 detectors (pixels) in monolithic square arrays 14 pixels on a side (196 detectors). As proposed in Phase II work, paneling 9 of these arrays (as the basis of a highly sensitive radiation imager) would make a photodetector that was 100 cm2 in sensitive area. This results in approximately 1800 individual detectors that require data sampling and control. This is an enormous electronics load. To reduce the electronics complexity for the readout scheme of APD arrays (one of the major aspects of the proposed Phase II research) individual detectors (in the array) will be grouped together on common readout lines by rows and columns. This row-column-addressing scheme reduces the readout complexity from 1800 to 90 if 42 APDs are grouped on each row and column. However, each APD detector suffers from internal noise that it can contribute to a common readout line. To eliminate the common noise and keep it from washing out detector signal, each APD must have some sort of specialized readout contact. The readout contact must eliminate the APDs contribution of its own individual noise to the common data line in addition to preventing detector crosstalk, data line feedback, and allowing the passage of a true event signal. We report here on the research conducted at RMD to develop this technology