B. Henrich

The PILATUS 1M detector.

The PILATUS 1M detector is a hybrid pixel array detector with over one million pixels that operate in single photon counting mode. The detector, designed for macromolecular crystallography, is the largest pixel array detector currently in use at a synchrotron. It is a modular system consisting of 18 multichip modules covering an area of 21 cm x 24 cm. The design of the components as well as the manufacturing of the detector including the bump-bonding was performed at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). The use of a single photon counting detector for protein crystallography requires detailed studies of the charge collection properties of the silicon sensor. The 18 modules are read out in parallel, leading to a full frame readout-time of 6.7 ms. This allows crystallographic data to be acquired in fine-varphi-slicing mode with continuous rotation of the sample. The detector was tested in several experiments at the protein crystallography beamline X06SA at the Swiss Light Source at PSI. Data were collected both in conventional oscillation mode using the shutter, as well as in a fine-varphi-slicing mode. After applying all the necessary corrections to data from a thaumatin crystal, the processing of the conventional data led to satisfactory merging R-factors of the order of 8.5%. This allows, for the first time, determination of a refined electron density map of a macromolecular biological crystal using a silicon pixel detector.

Performance of single-photon-counting PILATUS detector modules

Characterization of PILATUS single-photon-counting X-ray detector modules regarding charge sharing, energy resolution and rate capability is presented. The performance of the detector was tested with surface diffraction experiments at the synchrotron.

The MYTHEN detector for X-ray powder diffraction experiments at the Swiss Light Source

A report on the characterization, calibration and performances of the MYTHEN photon-counting silicon microstrip detector at the powder diffraction station at the Swiss Light Source is given.

Capturing dynamics with Eiger, a fast-framing X-ray detector

A high-frame-rate single-photon-counting pixel detector named Eiger and its suitability for X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy are described.

The GOTTHARD charge integrating readout detector: design and characterization

A charge integrating readout ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) for silicon strip sensors has been developed at PSI in collaboration with DESY. The goal of the project is to provide a charge integrating readout system able to cope with the pulsed beam of XFEL machines and at the same time to retain the high dynamic range and single photon resolution performances typical for photon counting systems. The ASIC, designed in IBM 130 nm CMOS technology, takes advantage of its three gain stages with automatic stage selection to achieve a dynamic range of 10000 12 keV photons and a noise better than 300 e.n.c.. The 4 analog outputs of the ASIC are optimized for speed, allowing frame rates higher than 1 MHz, without compromises on linearity and noise performances. This work presents the design features of the ASIC, and reports the characterization results of the chip itself.

Eiger: a single-photon counting x-ray detector

Eiger is a single-photon counting x-ray pixel detector being developed at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) for applications at synchrotron light sources. It follows the widely utilized and successful Pilatus detector. The main features of Eiger are a pixel size of 75 × 75 μm2, high frame rate capability of 22 kHz and negligible dead time between frames of 4 μs. This article contains a detailed description of Eiger detector systems, from the 500 kpixel single-module detector to large-area multi-modules systems. The calibration and performance of the first 500 kpixel system that is in routine user operation are also presented. Furthermore, a method of calibrating the energy of single-photon counting detectors along the detector gain axis is introduced. This approach has the advantage that the detector settings can be optimized at all energies for count rate capabilities. Rate capabilities of the system are reported for energies between 6 and 16 keV.

EIGER a new single photon counting detector for X-ray applications: performance of the chip

EIGER is the next generation of single photon counting pixel detector for synchrotron radiation designed by the PSI-SLS detector group. It features a pixel size of 75 × 75μm2 and frame rates up to 23 kHz. The chip contains 256 × 256 pixels, has a total size of 19.3 × 20 mm2 and provides 4, 8 and 12 bit counting modes. This dynamic range is extendable to 32 bits with continuous read/write and summation of frames on the fly in firmware. Along with X-ray absorption images, the characterization and performance of the chip is presented. The energy calibration, noise, minimum energy threshold and rate capability measured with a single chip test system in a X-ray tube and at the SLS-PSI synchrotron are shown. Trimming studies and irradiation effects are discussed as well. To conclude, the status of the production of larger detector systems consisting of 2 × 4 chip modules and multi modules detector systems (9 Mpixels; 3 × 6 modules) is outlined.

Micrometre resolution of a charge integrating microstrip detector with single photon sensitivity

The spatial resolution of a single-photon-resolving integrating system has been improved using a non-linear charge interpolation approach. The resolution limit for a 20 µm-pitch sensor is presented.

A low noise high dynamic range analog front-end ASIC for the AGIPD XFEL detector

In this paper we present a low noise high dynamic range analog front-end ASIC designed for the Adaptive Gain Integrating Pixel Detector (AGIPD) being developed for the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility. The ASIC has 64 × 64 pixels with a pixel size of 200 × 200 μm2, and is bump bonded to a silicon sensor for X-ray imaging. Each pixel includes an adaptive gain charge integrating amplifier (AGCIA) and 352 analog storage cells. The gain of the AGCIA dynamically adapts to the number of photons arriving at the sensor in order to achieve a single photon resolution and a dynamic range of more than 104 12 keV photons. The XFEL bunch trains consist of up to 2700 bunches separated by 220 ns (600 us in total) followed by an idle time of 99.4 ms. The AGCIA operates in a 220 ns repeating cycle by storing images and the gain information into the pixel memory during the pulse train. The stored images are read out during the breaks of the bunch trains. Several prototypes are designed and fabricated in IBM 130 nm CMOS technology. The measurements showed an input equivalent noise charge (ENC) lower than 300 e- and a dynamic range of 7000 photons.

Methodological Study of a Single Photon Counting Pixel Detector at SPring‐8

PILATUS (Pixel Apparatus for the SLS) is a challenging project to develop a large area single photon counting pixel detector for synchrotron radiation experiments. SPring‐8 examined the PLATUS single module detectors in collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institute. The PILATUS‐II single module detector has a desired performance with almost zero defective pixels and a fast frame rate up to 100 Hz using a newly developed PCI readout system on a Linux‐PC. The maximum counting rate achieves more than 2 × 106 X‐rays/s/pixel.