XIDER: First Prototypes and Results with the Digital Integration Readout Scheme

Abstract

The ESRF Extremely Brilliant Source (EBS) is the first fourth-generation high-energy synchrotron facility worldwide. Next-generation sources of synchrotron radiation pose significant challenges for 2D pixelated X-ray detectors. In particular, scattering and diffraction experiments require fast detectors with a high dynamic range, from single-photon sensitivity to pile-up conditions under high photon fluxes of up to 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">9</sup> Mphpixel <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−1</sup> s <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−1</sup> . The XIDER project aims to fulfil the needs of these high-energy applications by implementing a novel on-chip incremental digital integration readout scheme. XIDER detectors seek to operate efficiently under the high-flux EBS beam of up to 100keV photons, with a time resolution that can cope with near-continuous and pulsed beams of up to 5.7MHz. The first XIDER prototypes have been recently assembled by hybridising 1mm cadmium-telluride sensors with a custom-designed ASIC readout chip in TSMC 65nm, realising the first implementation of an on-chip digital integration readout scheme. These prototypes are functional and characterisation measurements have begun, including irradiation using X-ray sources.