SDD Silicon Drift Detector - Obsolete

Typical Performance Characteristics

Table 1. Resolution vs. Peaking Time for the FAST SDD®.

Figure 1. Resolution vs. peaking time for the FAST SDD® and standard SDD at 210 K.

Figure 2. Resolution vs. peaking time at different detector temperatures. Note that there is little change in resolution over temperature for the peaking times that are typically used with the FAST SDD® (< />

Figure 4. Throughput for the FAST SDD®.

Figure 5. Resolution vs. Input Counts Rate (ICR) for Various Peaking Times for FAST SDD®.

Figure 5. Energy resolution, efficiency, and X-ray energy: This plot shows how the intrinsic efficiency (top) and energy resolution (bottom) depend on the X-ray energy.

In the bottom plot, the black curve represents “Fano broadening”, the theoretical limit with a Si based detectors, arising from quantum fluctuations in the charge production process.  The colored curves represent the combination of Fano broadening and intrinsic electronic noise under optimum conditions (full cooling and long peaking time).  The detector selection is most important at the lowest energies because Fano broadening dominates at high enough energies.

In the top plot, the efficiency at low energies is determined by transmission through the window and detector dead layer.  The efficiency at high energies is determined by attenuation in the active depth of the detector.  A Si detector with Be window is recommended between about 2 and 30 keV.  A Si detector with a C1 or C2 window is recommended at lower energies, while a CdTe detector is best at energies above 30 keV.

Efficiency Package: A ZIP file of coefficients and a FAQ about efficiency. This package is provided for general information. It should not be used as a basis for critical quantitative analysis.

The 25 mm²  SDD is available with the standard Amptek options and OEM configurations.

• XR100SDD with PX5
• X-123SDD
• OEM Configurations
• Vacuum Applications

The XR-100 SDD with the PX5	The SDD with its preamplifier is available in several OEM configurations	The X-123 SDD configuration includes the detector, preamplifier, digital processor and power supplies all in one box	The SDD is compatible with all Amptek vacuum accessories

• Vacuum accessories
• Experimenter’s XRF kit
• External Collimator

Example Spectra

Figure 6. Stainless Steel 316 Spectrum taken in 1 second with the FAST SDD®.

Stainless Steel 316 Quantitative Analysis with FAST SDD®

The below table displays the quantitative analysis of the data in figure 4. This spectrum was taken in 1 second with the FAST SDD®.

Figure 7. Solder spectrum taken in 1 second (1 µs peaking time) with the FAST SDD®.

Figure 8. Multielement standard taken with the FAST SDD® at different count rates up to 1 Mcps.

Space Exploration Application

The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) is an International Space Station (ISS) payload devoted to the study of neutron stars through soft X-ray timing.  The heart of the instrument is an aligned collection of 56 Amptek silicon drift detectors (SDD) with C Series Windows and X-ray “concentrator” optics (XRC) pairs. Each XRC collects X-rays over a large geometric area from a roughly 30 arcmin² region of the sky and focuses them onto a small SDD. The Amptek FAST SDD® detects individual photons, recording their energies with good (few percent) spectral resolution and their detection times to an unprecedented 100 nanoseconds RMS relative to Universal Time. Together, this assemblage provides a high signal-to-noise-ratio photon-counting capability within the 0.2-12 keV X-ray band, perfectly matched to the typical spectra of neutron stars as well as a broad collection of other astrophysical sources.

For an overview of the NICER mission, please see this presentation.

TO-8 STP File