The historical development of the thermoelectrically cooled X-ray detector and its impact on the portable and hand-held XRF industries (February 2009)

Portable/hand-held X-ray fluorescence (XRF) instruments now achieve performance comparable to laboratory-sized, expensive, liquid nitrogen cooled systems. The availability of these systems has expanded XRF applications out of the laboratory to in situ analysis including that for lead in paint, alloy identification, process control, restriction of hazardous substances/waste from electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS/WEEE) compliance, and art and archaeology. The development of small, low-power, high-performance, and cost-effective X-ray detectors was a critical part of this transformation. This paper will look back at the development and technical achievements of the Amptek X-ray detector as well the future direction of portable XRF. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  J. Iwanczyk,et al.  Comparison of HgI2, CdTe and Si (p-i-n) X-ray detectors , 1996 .

[2]  Roberto Cesareo,et al.  Thermoelectrically cooled semiconductor detectors for non-destructive analysis of works of art by means of energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence , 1999 .

[3]  Pavel Rehak,et al.  Semiconductor drift chamber: an application of a novel charge transport scheme , 1984 .

[4]  J. Kemmer.  Fabrication of low noise silicon radiation detectors by the planar process , 1980 .

[5]  Satoshi Miyajima,et al.  Thin CdTe detector in diagnostic x-ray spectroscopy. , 2003, Medical physics.

[6]  A. Huber,et al.  Improved sensitivity X-ray detectors for field applications , 2001 .

[7]  G. Entine,et al.  New, high performance nuclear spectroscopy system using Si-PIN diodes and CdTe detectors , 1994 .

[8]  J. Pantazis,et al.  Characterization of CdTe Detectors for Quantitative X-ray Spectroscopy , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[9]  A. Huber,et al.  Improved thermoelectrically cooled X/γ-ray detectors and electronics , 2001 .

[10]  A. Loupilov,et al.  X-ray Peltier cooled detectors for X-ray fluorescence analysis , 2001 .

[11]  Peter Lechner,et al.  Ultrathin entrance windows for silicon drift detectors , 1997 .

[12]  Antonio Francesco Longoni,et al.  New results with semiconductor drift chambers for X-ray spectroscopy , 1994 .

[13]  A. Loupilov,et al.  Semiconductor Peltier-cooled detectors for x-ray fluorescence analysis , 2004 .

[14]  V. Argyropoulos,et al.  Importance of in-situ EDXRF Measurements in the Preservation and Conservation of Material Culture , 2005 .

[15]  T. Takahashi,et al.  Multielement CdTe stack detectors for gamma-ray spectroscopy , 2003, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[16]  J. A. Pantazis,et al.  High performance, thermoelectrically cooled X-ray and gamma ray detectors , 1995 .