HIGH-SPATIAL-RESOLUTION SILICON READ-OUT SYSTEM FOR SINGLE-PHOTON X-RAY-DETECTION

A prototype detection system has been built for single photon X-ray de tection which provides precise position and good energy measurements. The detecting element is a silicon microstrip detector, originally dev eloped for high-energy physics. The readout is provided by a 16 channe l prototype VLSI circuit, each channel consisting of a low-noise pream plifier followed by an RC-CR shaper (shaping time of 1500 ns) and a di scriminator. The self-triggering property of the chip allows efficient X-ray detection. Two readout chips have been connected to the p-side of a FOXFET biased double-sided AC-coupled microstrip detector. The sy stem has been tested with a multi-energy X source and at an X-ray diff ractometer. Energy calibration is shown together with a few images, pr oving the good performances of the system for X-ray imaging. A Debye-S cherrer diagram has been recorded.