X-ray response evaluation in subpixel level for X-ray SOI pixel detectors

Abstract

We have been developing event-driven SOI Pixel Detectors, named “XRPIX” (X-ray soiPIXel) based on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) pixel technology, for the future X-ray astronomical satellite with wide band coverage from 0.5keV to 40keV. XRPIX has event trigger output function at each pixel to acquire a good time resolution of a few μs and has Correlated Double Sampling function to reduce electric noises. The good time resolution enables the XRPIX to reduce Non X-ray Background in the high energy band above 10keV drastically by using anti-coincidence technique with active shield counters surrounding XRPIX. In order to increase the soft X-ray sensitivity, it is necessary to make the dead layer on the X-ray incident surface as thin as possible. Since XRPIX1b, which is a device at the initial stage of development, is a front-illuminated (FI) type of XRPIX, low energy X-ray photons are absorbed in the 8μm thick circuit layer, lowering the sensitivity in the soft X-ray band. Therefore, we developed a back-illuminated (BI) device XRPIX2b, and confirmed high detection efficiency down to 2.6keV, below which the efficiency is affected by the readout noise. In order to further improve the detection efficiency in the soft X-ray band, we developed a back-illuminated device XRPIX3b with lower readout noise. In this work, we irradiated 2–5keV X-ray beam collimated to 4μmϕ to the sensor layer side of the XRPIX3b at 6μm pitch. In this paper, we reported the uniformity of the relative detection efficiency, gain and energy resolution in the subpixel level for the first time. We also confirmed that the variation in the relative detection efficiency at the subpixel level reported by Matsumura (2015) has improved.