Evaluation of gamma-ray response of the AstroPix4 HV-CMOS active pixel sensor

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the gamma-ray detection performance of AstroPix4, a high-voltage CMOS active pixel sensor designed for space telescopes, demonstrating its energy resolution, depletion depth, and power consumption in gamma-ray detection.

Contribution

It presents the gamma-ray response of AstroPix4, highlighting improvements in power consumption, energy resolution, and depletion depth for space-based gamma-ray detection.

Findings

Achieved 14% energy resolution at 122 keV

Depletion depth of approximately 90 μm at -240 V bias

Power consumption reduced to about 2 mW/cm²

Abstract

AstroPix is a novel high-voltage CMOS active pixel sensor being developed for a next generation gamma-ray space telescope, AMEGO-X. To meet AMEGO-X instrument requirements, AstroPix must achieve full depletion of its $500~\rm{\mu m}$ thick, $500~\rm{\mu m}$-pitch pixels. It must be sensitive to gamma rays in the range of $25-700$ keV, with the energy resolution at 122 keV of $<10$%. Furthermore, given the space-based nature of AMEGO-X, the power consumption of AstroPix needs to be lower than $1.5~\rm{mW/{cm}^2}$. We report the gamma-ray response of the latest version of AstroPix, AstroPix4. The chip contains $16\times 13$ array of $500~\rm{\mu m}$-pitch pixels. The power consumption is estimated to be about $2~\rm{mW/{cm}^2}$, which is approximately half the power of the previous AstroPix version. The input capacitance is reduced, allowing for the detection of the 14 keV photopeak from $\rm{^{57}Co}$ and a moderate energy resolution of 14% at 122 keV. The dynamic range is estimated to be in the range from 14 keV to $\sim250$ keV. We found that the sensor depletion layer expands as expected and the measured depletion depth is approximately $90~\rm{\mu m}$ when biased at $-240$ V.