Development of Thin-Window Silicon Drift Detector for X-ray spectroscopy

A new set of thin-window silicon drift detectors composed of an array of hexagonal shaped detectors has been designed, constructed and tested for X-ray spectroscopy. Each individual ThinWinSDD has a thin entrance window on one side and a spiral shaped hexagonal cathode around a center anode on the other side. To produce the thin entrance window a 10 keV implantation of boron through a 500 A silicon dioxide was used. The implantation was followed by an annealing at 700degC for 30 min and a reactive ion etching step to ensure the removal of silicon dioxide from the smallest feature (5 mum). An aluminum layer is coated in the same vacuum system after back-sputtering. This step involves removing the native oxide that has formed on the top of the silicon substrate and then sputtering a 1100 A thick layer of aluminum onto the X-ray entrance window. The aluminum layer must be thick enough to block visible light, but thin enough to be transparent to soft X-rays down to 280 eV. We discuss first test results that include detector leakage current measurements and the response for multiple detectors exposed to the National Synchrotron Light Source´s UV beam line U3C located at Brookhaven National Laboratory for X-ray energies as low as 280 eV.