A new family of pixel detectors for high frame rate X-ray applications

We are developing a new family of hybrid, single photon counting X-ray detectors for very high frame rate applications. A dedicated readout chip was designed, to be used as building block for detectors up to 9 Mpixel and about 550 cm(2) area. It has an area of 19.3 x 20.0 mm(2) and contains 256 x 256 pixels of 75 x 75 mu m(2), resulting in an active region of 19.2 x 19.2 mm(2). Each pixel contains a 12 bit counter with double buffering for continuous image acquisition. Moreover, it allows a partial readout (4, 8 or 12 bits) with corresponding frame rates up to 24, 12 and 8 kHz. The chip is designed with Hardening By Design techniques [1], to obtain high radiation tolerance from a standard commercial 0.25 mu m CMOS technology. The chip was recently received from fabrication and it is at present under test. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.