High spatial resolution silicon read-out system for single photon x-ray detection

A prototype detection system has been built for single photon X-ray detection which provides precise position and good energy measurements. The detecting element is a silicon microstrip detector, originally developed for high-energy physics. The readout is provided by a 16 channel prototype VLSI circuit, each channel consisting of a low-noise preamplifier followed by an RC-CR shaper (shaping time of 1500 ns) and a discriminator. The self-triggering property of the chip allows efficient X-ray detection. Two readout chips have been connected to the p-side of a FOXFET biased double-sided AC-coupled microstrip detector. The system has been tested with a multi-energy X ray source and at an X-ray diffractometer. Energy calibration is shown together with a few images, proving the good performances of the system for X-ray imaging. A Debye-Scherrer diagram has been recorded.