PIPS detectors

PIPS-Passivated Implanted Planar Silicon detector is a product of modern semiconductor technology. It used ion implantation device to accelerate ions, after screening, focusing and re-acceleration, they are injected into silicon wafers. The whole process is carried out under vacuum. The production of deep ion-implanted silicon detetcors for alpha/beta spectrometers have undergone thousands ofapplictaion so far, including alpha and beta energy spectrum analysis and counting, nuclear identification, environment radiation monitoring and many other relevant fields. 

The PIPS detector has a number of advantages compared with traditional silicon surface barrier(SSB) and diffused junction(DJ) detectors:

• All junction edges are buried - no epoxy edge sealant is needed or used

• Contacts are ion-implanted to form precise, thin, abrupt junctions for good alpha resolution
  

• Entrance window is stable and rugged - it can be cleaned readily and reliably

• Leakage current is typically1/8 to 1/100 of that of SSB and DJ detectors
  

• Dead layer(window) thickness is less than that of comparable SDB or DJ detectors

• Standard detectors are bakeabke to 100 degree C - higher for special models

We had two type FD(Fully Depleted) and CAM(Continuous Air Monitoring) series PIPS detectors. The FD series detectors are particularly good in thickness uniformity, thickness of entrance window is 50 nm, typical operating voltage are 45 V for 300 um thick detector, while 70 V for 500 um thick detector, the maximum active area can be produced up to 5000 mm2.

The CAM series detector has aluminum and varnish coating on the front surface, the aluminum coating allows the detector to be operated in ambient light and the varnish coating provide mechanical protection for aluminum layer. The total entrance window thickness is less than 2 um equivalent silicon. The CAM detector is designed to operate with +15 to +25 V bias, this means no additional H.V. bias supply is required for most systems. The detector operates from the dc voltage that is normally available to power the electronics in the system.

Both kinds of detector can adapt to normal or vacuum environment, in addition the entrance window of probe has an aluminum protective film. The probes are all using Axial Microdot female, with optional BNC and SMA.