Multichannel semiconductor detectors for high energy X-ray and electron beams

Abstract

Multichannel semiconductor detectors for high energy X-ray (10 MV) and electron beams (10–15 MeV) have been developed using surface-barrier diodes fabricated from high purity n-type silicon. The experimentally obtained linearity of the detector output current is excellent for a range up to 1000 R/min for 10–15 MeV electron beams and up to 500 R/min for 10 MV X-rays. As the detector operational mode is non-biasing without cooling, there are many useful applications, such as monitoring the two-dimensional radiation intensity distribution of a medical linear accelerator. In addition to the application for high energy radiations, other applications (X-ray computed tomography, automatic X-ray exposure control systems) are discussed briefly.