Silicon pixel detector for x-ray spectroscopy

We have built a back-illuminated, silicon x-ray pixel detector which is bump bonded to an array of readout electronics. The system is intended for x-ray spectroscopy measurement in the 1 keV-25keV range with a resolution of 250eV FWHM. The readout electronics consists of an array of 16 by 16 preamplifiers on the bump bonded integrated circuit, this unit is wire bonded to two 128 channel integrated circuits which have signal shaping, peak-hold and sparcification logic. This paper describes the construction of the silicon detector, the readout electronics and the performance of these components. The energy range of the detector system can be increased by using a GaAs or CdZnTe detector instead of the 300 micrometers -500 micrometers thick silicon pixel detector described here.