Silicon Drift Detectors arrays for the HICAM gamma camera

Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) have recently shown to be a competitive device for the readout of scintillator with respect to conventional photodetectors, thanks to their high quantum efficiency and low electronics noise. Recently, we have developed first small prototypes of Anger cameras based on monolithic arrays of SDDs, which have allowed to achieve sub-millimeter spatial resolution. To cover larger format of Anger cameras to be used especially in human imaging, arrays of SDDs of larger active areas have to be employed. In the framework of the HICAM project, we are developing a gamma-ray imager composed by 100 SDDs of 1cm² each in a 10x10cm² format. In this work, we describe the devices developed for this specific application and we present the preliminary results of their experimental characterization either in direct X-ray detection to evaluate the electronics noise, either in gamma-ray detection with a scintillator.