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DOE Pulse
  • Number 428  |
  • December 8, 2014

Multilaboratory collaboration brings new X-ray detector to light

Researchers from Brookhaven, Fermilab and Argonne work on a new type of X-ray detector that uses a 3-D imaging chip.

Researchers from Brookhaven, Fermilab
and Argonne work on a new type of X-ray
detector that uses a 3-D imaging chip.

A collaboration blending research in DOE's offices of High-Energy Physics with Basic Energy Sciences is yielding a one-of-a-kind X-ray detector. Results achieved with a powerful prototype detector featuring a 3-D imaging chip already have attracted attention from the scientific community.

The new type of detector boasts Brookhaven Lab sensors mounted on Fermilab integrated circuits linked to Argonne Lab data acquisition systems. It will be used at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source II and Argonne's Advanced Photon Source.

"This partnership between HEP and BES has been a fruitful collaboration, advancing detector technology for both fields," said Brookhaven's Peter Siddons.

The detector is filling a need in the X-ray correlation spectroscopy community, which has been longing for a detector that can capture dynamic processes in samples with microsecond timing and nanoscale sensitivity. Available detectors have been designed largely for X-ray diffraction crystallography and are incapable of performing on this time scale.

In 2006, Fermilab engineers began investigating 3-D integrated chip technology, which increases circuit density, performance and functionality by vertically stacking rather than laterally arranging silicon wafers. Then in 2008, Fermilab’s Grzegorz Deptuch met with Siddons at a medical imaging conference. They discussed applying 3-D technology to a new, custom detector project, which was later given the name VIPIC (vertically integrated photon imaging chip). Siddons was intrigued by the 3-D opportunities and has since taken the lead on leveraging Fermilab expertise toward the longstanding problem in X-ray correlation spectroscopy. As a result, the development of the X-ray detector at Fermilab — where 97 percent of research funds come through DOE’s HEP Office — receives BES funding.

A 64-by-64-pixel VIPIC prototype tested at Argonne this summer flaunted three essential properties: timing resolution within one microsecond; continuous new-data acquisition with simultaneous old-data read-out; and selective transmission of only pixels containing data. Robert Bradford is the lead scientist for the Argonne group.

The team is working on a 1-megapixel detector. It is targeting a completion date of 2017.

"It truly is a cooperative effort, combining the expertise from three national laboratories toward one specific goal," said Deptuch. – Troy Rummler

[Kurt Riesselmann, 630.840.3351,
media@fnal.gov]