Products for Your Imagination

Understanding Amptek’s Silicon Drift Detectors

Amptek, Inc. provides silicon drift detectors (SDDs) and a faster configuration, the FastSDD, along with
SiPIN and CdTe X-ray detectors. SDDs are a mature X-ray detector technology offering higher performance
than conventional planar detectors. An SDD has less electronic noise than a comparable planar detector, at
short peaking times. The FastSDD has even lower electronic noise at short peaking times. This gives the
SDD better energy resolution than an SiPIN at moderate count rates and much better energy resolution at
high count rates. The difference is most significant at low energies (where Fano broadening is least.) This
application note will provide some background information on SDDs, on how they compare to planar
detectors, and when they are recommended.
Introduction
Figure 1 shows spectra taken with a 25 mm2 SDD and a 25mm2 planar detector. The spectra on the left
were taken at a long peaking time (25.6 s) and 5 kcps count rate. The SDD (filled gray) has better
resolution but the difference is small and the peaks are well resolved for both detectors. The spectra on
the right were taken at a short peaking time (2.4 s) and 25 kcps count rate. The SDD resolution is much
better than that of the planar detector. In fact, the SDD resolution is nearly the same in the two plots: the
Pb L line (10.55 keV) is 185 (190) eV FWHM at 25.6 (2.4) s. With an SDD, low energy peaks can be
measured at a high count rate with little loss of resolution. This is its key advantage.
1.0E+04 5.0E+04
25.6 sec 2.4 sec

8.0E+03 4.0E+04

6.0E+03 3.0E+04
Counts

Counts

4.0E+03 2.0E+04

2.0E+03 1.0E+04

0.0E+00 0.0E+00
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Energy (keV) Energy (keV)
2 2
Figure 1. Spectra taken by a 25 mm SDD (filled) and a 25 mm planar diode (black) of a RoHS/WEEE reference
material, containing about 1000 ppm each of Cr, Br, Hg, and Pb in a polyethylene matrix. The spectra on the left were
taken using a 25.6 s peaking time, at 5 kcps, while those on the right were taken at a 2.4 s peaking time at 25 kcps.
An SDD is a special type of photodiode, functionally similar to a planar photodiode but with a unique
electrode structure. It has much lower capacitance than a planar diode of the same area, and since
electronic noise at short shaping times is proportional to capacitance, the SDD yields much lower noise at
short shaping times. This give better energy resolution and high count rates.
Figure 2 is a sketch of a planar detector, often called a SiPIN. Fabricated out of low resistivity n-type
silicon, it has a large planar contact on both the front and back sides (N+ on the back, P+ on the front,
forming the junction). A bias across the detector form an electric field. When an X-ray interacts, producing
a pulse of charge, the field sweeps the carriers across to the contacts; this transient current pulse is the
signal, integrated by a charge amplifier. The detector’s resolution is limited by electronic noise, which
arises from two main terms (see Amptek’s note on “Understanding Energy Resolution). Dark current
through the detector leads to shot noise, dominant at long peaking times, while thermal noise in the FET
produces noise proportional to the detector’s capacitance; this is dominant at short peaking times.

AMPTEK, Inc. 14 DeAngelo Drive, Bedford, MA 01730-2204 USA

+1 781 275-2242 Fax: +1 781 275-3470 www.amptek.com [email protected]
 Products for Your Imagination

Sketch illustrating the design and operation of a planar SiPIN detector.

The SDD looks similar but the backside has a special electrode structure: a series of drift rings which
produce a radial field, guiding the electrons to a very small, low capacitance anode (0.035 pF in Amptek’s 25
mm2 SDD). Electrons produced throughout the active volume drift to the signal anode, which is connected
to a discrete JFET where the signal current is collected. The much lower capacitance leads to much less
high frequency noise, thus reducing the noise at short peaking times and allowing operation at higher count
rates.

Incident
X-ray
Entrance window
Drift path
(Cathode, P+, 150 nm deep )

-50V

E
+ - ++-
E -+ -

Anode
-100V
-20V (N+, 45 m)
Charge
Drift rings amplifier
(P+, range of voltages)

Sketch illustrating the design and operation of a silicon drift detector (SDD).
The SDD is a very mature technology, benefiting from much research over many years. The concept of
the SDD was introduced in 1984 by Gatti and Rehak [1]. The first SDDs were optimized for position sensing.
In 1985, Rehak et. al. proposed optimizing SDDs for X-ray spectroscopy [2]. The early SDDs required drift
rings on both sides, but in 1987, Kemmer et. al. introduced a structure requiring drift electrodes on only
one side and other significant improvements in the design [3]. Since then, many papers have been written
describing the design and fabrication of SDDs. Several national laboratories and companies have design,
built, and used SDDs. Amptek’s SDDs build on a very mature technological basis. Amptek, Inc. developed
its custom SDDs to meet the unique requirements of OEM manufacturers of EDXRF instruments.
Amptek’s 25 mm2 SDD is an outstanding detector for energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, with an
energy resolution of 12 eV FWHM at the 5.9 keV Mn K line [4] at 9.6 s Tpeak, corresponding to an
electronic noise of only 45 eV FWHM (5.3 e- rms), without cryogenic cooling.

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What are the advantages of an SDD?

The main advantage of the SDD is that it has much lower electronic noise than a planar device at short
shaping times, i.e. at high count rates. Lower noise imples better resolution, particularly at low energies.
With an SDD, the resolution is good even for large areas. Overall, the resolution of the SDD is better than
that of the planar detector, but the advantages are particularly important at low energies, high count rates,
and for larger areas.
As shown ibelow, the SDD (25 mm2) has a resolution of 150 eV FWHM at Tpeak=1.6 s, supporting an
input count rate (ICR) of 300 kcps. The 6 mm2 planar detector has a resolution of 150 eV FWHM, but only
at Tpeak=25.6 s, for count rates of 20 kcps. The SDD can maintain good resolution at 15x the count rate of
the planar detector.
300 300
SuperSDD - 25 mm2 Planar - 6 mm
2
Maximum output
280 280 Count Rate
Resolution (eV FWHM @ 5.9 keV)

260 Maximum output 260 0.8 s

Count Rate

eV FWHM (@5.9 keV)

240 240
0.2 s
2.4 s
220 220

200 0.4 s 200

4.8 s
180 180
0.8 s
9.6 s
160 160
1.6 s

140 2.4 s 140 25.6 s

4.8 s
9.6 s
120 120
1.0E+03 1.0E+04 1.0E+05 1.0E+06 1.0E+07 1.0E+03 1.0E+04 1.0E+05 1.0E+06 1.0E+07
Input Count Rate (sec-1) Input Count Rate (sec-1)

Plots showing resolution vs input count rate for a 25 mm2 SDD (left) and a 6 mm2 SiPIN (right).
The plot below shows how much better the SDD is at short peaking times (high count rates). It also
shows that, for a planar detector, the resolution degrades significantly worse as the area increases. The
resolution of an SDD is much less dependent on area: a 25 mm2 SDD has somewhat better resolution than 6
mm2 SiPIN and much better than the 25 mm2 SiPIN. The SDD can maintain good resolution over large
areas.
1000
25 mm2 SuperSDD
6 mm2 SiPIN
25 mm2 SiPIN
Resolution (eV FWHM @ 5.9 keV)

100
1 10 100
Time to peak (us)

Plot showing energy resolution vs peaking time for the 25 mm2 SDD, the 6 mm2 SiPIN, and the 25 mm2
SiPIN. This is the resolution at the 5.9 keV Mn Ka peak, at full cooling.
When comparing all detectors at their optimum, the resolution of the SDD is best: 126 eV FWHM
versus a 6 mm2 SiPIN which yields 145 eV FWHM. There are applications where this difference is

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 Products for Your Imagination

important, where the detectors are operated at this optimum. In most practical applications of XRF,
however, it is the combination of resolution and count rate which is most important.
What are the disadvantages of an SDD?
The primary disadvantage of SDDs is that they are more complex devices to fabricate and operate. The
fabrication of the diode chip itself, its packaging in the detector hybrid, and its handling during
manufacturing are all more challenging than with a Si-PIN. This has historically resulted in lower yields and
higher costs. Amptek’s SDD is much less expensive than other SDDs but still more expensive than Amptek’s
planar detectors.
Is the SDD the best detector?
It might seem that the SDD is always the best detector. Its advantages are clear: excellent energy
resolution and high count rates. The disadvantage is that it is more difficult to fabricate and thus more
expensive. Better energy resolution is always good (everything else being equal), so detector
manufacturers usually stress energy resolution to differentiate their products. Handling higher count rates
is also good, everything else being equal. But other things are not equal (the SDD is more expensive).
There are quite a few applications in which the lower noise and improve dresolution are not important,
many applications where the higher count rates are not important, and for these applications the lower
cost planar device can be superior.
The SDD can handle higher count rates, but the detector is not always what limits count rates. In many
cases, the flux from the excitation source (the X-ray tube) may only give a few thousand counts per second
in the detector. The SDD’s main advantage is at short shaping times, to permit high count rates. If the rate
is low enough, then the longer peaking time is fine, and the SDD’s resolution is only a bit better than that of
the planar detectors.
Depending on the energy of the X-ray, the SDD’s lower noise may not be significant. The total
resolution results from both electronic noise and statistical fluctuations in the charge produced by the X-ray
interaction, with the terms adding in quadrature. The statistical fluctuations increase with energy and are
often much larger than the noise. At the 5.9 keV Mn K line, the statistical fluctuations contribute 118 eV,
while for the SDD the noise contributes 43 eV for a total of 126 eV FWHM.
Figure 2 and Figure 3 illustrate this in actual spectra. These figures show spectra taken from a Pb-Sn
solder sample using a 25 mm2 SDD and a 25 mm2 planar detector. The SDD had shorter peaking time and
3x the count rate. At the highest energies, the Sn K and K lines are indistinguishable. Statistical
broadening is so dominant that the lower noise of the SDD is not important here. At the moderate
energies, 10 to 15 keV, the SDD clearly has better resolution: the peak widths are a bit less and the peak
heights slightly greater. But all of the peaks can be resolved from each other and the background equally
well. The SDD has better resolution but it is unlikely to affect the analysis very much. At the lowest
energies, below 5 keV, the difference is quite significant. Peaks are resolved with the SDD which overlap
with the SiPIN and the peak to background ratio is much better.

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 Products for Your Imagination

1.0E+05
25 mm2 SDD Pb-Sn Solder
25 mm2 SiPIN

1.0E+04
Normalized Counts

1.0E+03

1.0E+02

1.0E+01

1.0E+00
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Energy (keV)
Figure 2. Spectra taken from a Pb-Sn solder using a 25mm2 SDD (filled gray) and a 25 mm2 planar detector
(black trace). The SDD spectrum was taken at a shorter peaking time, with 3x higher count rate.
2.0E+03 3.5E+04

25 mm2 SDD Pb-Sn Solder 25 mm2 SDD Pb-Sn Solder

25 mm2 SiPIN 25 mm2 SiPIN
3.0E+04

1.5E+03
2.5E+04
Normalized Counts

Normalized Counts

2.0E+04

1.0E+03

1.5E+04

1.0E+04
5.0E+02

5.0E+03

0.0E+00 0.0E+00
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Energy (keV) Energy (keV)

Figure 3. Same data as shown in Figure 2 but on a linear scale, concentrating on the low and medium
energy portion.
Figure 4 shows the energy resolution versus X-ray energy, where each curve corresponds to the
resolution measured at the Mn K line. At low energy, the SDD has much better resolution than the others
at low energy, but up around 30 keV the difference is small. This plot also shows the count rate effect: a 25
mm2 SDD at 70 kcps has a resolution comparable to a 6 mm2 planar detector

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 Products for Your Imagination

350

300

250
Resolution (eV FWHM)

195 eV FWHM
200 25 mm2 SiPIN @ 7 kcps
25 mm2 SuperSDD @ 400 kcps
175 eV FWHM
150 13 mm2 SiPIN @ 7 kcps
25 mm2 SuperSDD @ 200 kcps
145 eV FWHM
6 mm2 SiPIN @ 7 kcps
100 25 mm2 SuperSDD @ 70 kcps
126 eV FWHM
25mm2 SuperSDD @ 7 kcps
50 Fano limit
Na P Ar Cr Fe Ni Zn Br Mo Ag Sn

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Energy (keV)

Figure 4. Plot showing energy resolution versus X-ray energy for several detector configurations. Each
curve represents what is seen with resolution measured at 5.9 keV. The “126 eV” detector yields 126 eV
FWHM with the Mn K line but <50 ev FWHM at low energy.
The important of energy resolution also depends on the spectrum to be measured. Energy resolution
helps one to separate closely spaced peaks and to separate the peak from the background. If a spectrum
only has a few peaks, widely spaced and well above background, high resolution is not important. In the
Sn-Pb solder of Figure 2, the Sn Kand K peaks do not overlap with other peaks and are well separated
from background even with moderate resolution. One does not need high resolution. All of the peaks
between 10 and 15 keV are Pb L lines. There is no great need to separate them. On the other hand, in the
spectra of Figure 1, the Br K line (11.92 keV) and the Hg L line (11.82 keV) ovelap considerably. Good
energy resolution is quite important for this case.

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How does a drift diode work?

A conventional Si-PIN photodiode is sketched in Figure 5. There are two planar contacts, the anode
and the cathode, with a uniform electric field between them. An X-ray interacts at some location, ionizing
the Si atoms and producing electron-hole pairs. The electric field sweeps the carriers to their respective
contacts, causing a transient current pulse I(t) to flow through the diode. The cathode is connected to a
charge sensitive preamplifier and to pulse processing electronics, which detect the pulse and measure its
amplitude. The traces at the bottom illustrate the pulse shapes at the various signal processing stages.
Reset Circuit
Detector Bias
Low Frequency
Supply
Feedback
Incident
X-ray
Anode (+)
CF
electrons

- - E
+ + I (t )
Preamplifier Shaping Amplifier
ions

Cathode (-)

Si-PIN
Photodiode

Figure 5. Sketch illustrating the operation of a conventional photodiode.

The drift diode, sketched in Figure 6, uses a planar cathode but the anode is very small and surrounded
by a series of electrodes. The SDD is cylindrically symmetric, so the anode is a small circle and the drift
electrodes are annular. These electrodes are biased so as to create an electric field which guides the
electrons through the detector, where they are collected at the anode. The rest of the signal processing
electronics is nearly identical to that used with the Si-PIN diode.
The small area of the anode keeps the capacitance very small. Since the active volume of the diode is
enlarged by adding more electrodes with the same anode area, the input capacitance is independent of
detector area. This is important because the dominant noise source in silicon X-ray spectroscopy is voltage
noise, which is proportional to the total input capacitance and increases at short shaping times. The SDD,
with its low capacitance, has lower noise, particularly at very short shaping times.
Reset Circuit
Detector Bias
Low Frequency
Supply
Feedback
Incident
X-ray
Cathode (-)
CF

electrons
- -
+ + I (t )
Preamplifier Shaping Amplifier
ions

Silicon Drift
Electrodes (-)
Diode (SDD)
Anode

Figure 6. Sketch illustrating the operation of a silicon drift diode.

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 Products for Your Imagination

Is the SDD a new technology?

The SDD is actually a very mature technology. The SDD was introduced in 1984 by Gatti and Rehak, in
a paper which presented by the concept and experimental results. [1]. The SDD was seen as the solid state
equivalent of gas drift chambers then in use and was initially proposed to measure the spatial location of
interaction (derived from the drift time). In that first paper, Gatti and Rehak observed that the capacitance
is independent of area, so “very large are radiation detectors or photodiodes using this principle may have
much improved noise performance when compared to traditional diode detectors”.
There was much research carried out on the SDDs in the mid to late 1980s. The first circular SDD,
optimized for energy rather than position measurements, was described in 1985 by Rehak and Gatti et. al.
[2]. The early drift detectors used drift rings on both sides to produce the radial field. In 1987, Kemmer [3]
introduced a design using a planar contact on one side with drift rings on the opposite side. This was much
easier to fabricate and provided a thin, unstructred dead layer on the entrance side, which is quite
important for X-ray spectroscopy. Even today, 25 years after the first SDDs were fabricated, research
continues [5, 6, 7, 8]. SDDs optimized for X-ray spectroscopy have been commercially available for several
years. They are a well established, mature technology.
What is unique about Amptek’s SDD?
Amptek, Inc. is the leading OEM supplier of detectors for energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF).
Amptek’s thermoelectrically cooled detectors and electronics are very widely used in portable and
handheld EDXRF instruments. In many ways, Amptek’s products allowed the widespread use and large
market for portable EDXRF [9]. Amptek’s detectors combine high performance with low cost and quantity
production, making them appropriate for OEM uses.
Amptek’s SDD was optimized for this market, combining high performance (large area, good
resolution) with low cost and large quantities. Amptek’s SDD was also optimized to be compatible with
Amptek’s existing base of preamplifiers, signal processors, etc. Amptek’s requirements were unique,
making it necessary to develop a custom SDD. Amptek used the extensive literature on SDDs. We also
consulted with the detector development group at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, obtaining very
useful advice from P. Rehak, V. Radeka, W. Chen, G. De Geronimo, and their team. We simulated several
different device designs and fabrication parameters, using commercially available device simulation
software from Silvaco. Figure 7 is the result of one such simulation, showing the electrostatic field
distribution with a possible SDD design. Amptek’s SDD is a custom design, optimized for Amptek’s product
family, based on the published results of this mature technology.

Figure 7. Simulation result for one SDD configuration, obtained using the Silvaco Atlas tools, showing a radial profile of the detector. The center of
the detector (signal anode) is at the left. The entrance contact is seen at the top, with drift rings at the bottom. The colors depict the electrostatic
potential which guides the drifting electrons to the anode.

Is there a very long charge collection time with a drift diode?

Although the charges drift for a very long time, many microseconds, the risetime out of the preamp is
still very fast. This is because the final drift electrode is a virtual ground. Although electrons are moving for
the full drift period, yielding a current through the diode for the full drift period, this electrode essentially
shields the anode. It is only the drift motion past this final electrode that induces the signal current into the
anode.

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 Products for Your Imagination

However, as the carriers drift towards the anode, the charge cloud grows by diffusion. This causes the
collection time to increase for interactions at large distances from the anode, causing the preamplifier
risetime to vary. For the SDD at a typical bias voltage, the preamp risetime vary from 0.05 to 0.25 s.
Amptek recommends the flat top of the shaped pulse be kept at 0.25 s or larger to avoid ballistic deficit. If
the flat top duration is too short, the photopeak shapes in the spectrum will be larger than expected from
noise and Fano effects and will be non-Gaussian.
What are the different noise sources in Si-PIN and SDD detectors?
Figure 8 is an equivalent circuit of an X-ray detection system, applicable to both Si-PIN and SDD
detectors (and in fact applicable to many radiation detectors). The detector is represented as a signal
source. In parallel with the detector is a current noise generator. In Amptek’s systems, this is due entirely
to shot noise produced by the detector’s leakage current. In other systems, this may also include thermal
noise due to the feedback and bias detector and other terms, but reset type preamps eliminate these
contributions. In series with the detector is a voltage noise generator. In Amptek’s systems, this is due to
thermal noise from the channel of the input FET and to pink or 1/f voltage noise arising in the FET and the
detector.

CF

en
Shaping Amplifier
CIN
isig in

Figure 8. Noise equivalent circuit for an X-ray detector using any type of photodiode.
The equation below gives the electronic noise charge due to these noise generators, where the
shaping amplifier is one of Amptek’s digital pulse processors. The current noise increases with leakage and
with the peaking time. The 1/f noise is independent of peaking time but proportional to input capacitance.
The thermal noise of the FET decreases with peaking time and is also proportional to the input capacitance.
2   4kT   2 2 
3 
 
ENC 2   2qI leak    peak   e2pink Cin2  
  2 3 g  in 
C 
 m  peak 
The total resolution for an X-ray photopeak is due to the electronic noise and also to Fano broadening,
arising from statistical fluctuations in the radiation interaction and charge production process. The Fano
broadening adds in quadrature with the electronic noise, i.e. total broadening is the square root of the sum
of the squares. Fano broadening is independent of peaking time and scales as the square root of the
energy.
The importance of these contributions can be seen in Figure 9, showing data for a typical 13 mm2 x 500
m Si-PIN operating at 220 K on a Peltier cooler in an Amptek XR-100 with a PX4 digital pulse processor.
The black dots represent the total resolution measured using 5.9 keV X-rays from an 55Fe radioactive
source. The Fano term was removed, giving the electronic noise charge, the black curve. These data were
fit to the peaking time dependence of the equation above to give the series, parallel, and 1/f contributions.
The parallel noise, due to leakage current, is negligible at all shaping times measured (this is true at 220 K
but not at 250 K). The series noise dominates performance at peaking times less than 9 sec, so at the

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short shaping times needed to operate at high count rates. The 1/f noise dominates at the noise corner,
where the series and parallel are equal.
1.0E+03
Measured Total
Measured ENC
Fano
Fit ENC
Resolution (ev FWHM)

Fit Series
Fit Parallel
Fit 1/f

1.0E+02

1.0E+01
1.0E-06 1.0E-05 1.0E-04
Peaking Time (usec)

Figure 9. Plot showing the noise components versus shaping time for a typical Amptek 13 mm2 x 500m Si-
PIN diode.
The blue and green curves are both proportional to the input capacitance, so are dramatically reduced
in the SDD relative to the Si-PIN. This reduces the noise at the optimum, and also reduces the optimum
peaking time, permitting operation at much higher count rates. This is the key advantage of the SDD.

1
E. Gatti, P. Rehak, “Semiconductor drift chamger – an application of a novel charge transport scheme”,
Nucl. Instrum. Meth. 225, pp 608-614 (1984).
2
P. Rehak, E. Gatti, A. Longoni, J. Kemmer, P. Holl, R. Klanner, G. Lutz, W. Wylie, ”Semiconductor drift
chambers for position and energy measurements”, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A235, pp 224-234 (1985).
3
J. Kemmer, G. Lutz, E. Beleau, U. Prechtel, W. Welser, “Low capacity drift diode”, Nucl. Instrum. Meth.
A253, pp 378-381 (1987).
4
Unless otherwise noted, the “resolution” is specified at the Mn K line, 5.9 keV.
5
G.A. Carini, W. Chen, et. al, “Performance of a thin-window silicon drift detector X-ray fluorescence
spectromter”, IEEE. Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol 56, No. 2, pp 2843-2849 (2009)
6
G. Zampa, A. Rashevsky, A. Vacchi, “The X-ray spectroscopic performance of a very large area silicon drift
detector”, IEEE. Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol 56, No. 3, pp 832-835 (2009)
7
P. Rehak, W. Chen, et. al., “Comparison of two different methods to produce thin-window silicon drift
detectors”, Proc. IEEE Nucl. Sci. Symp., pp 1777-1782 (2009)
8
C. Fiorini, A. Gola, et. al. “A CMOS pulsed-reset preamplifier for silicon drift detectors with on-chip JFET”,
Proc. IEEE Nucl. Sci. Symp., pp 2519-2521 (2007)
9
T. Pantazis, J. Pantazis, A. Huber, R. Redus, “The historical development of the thermoelectrically cooled X-
ray detector and its impact on the portable and hand-held XRF industries”, X-ray Spectrometry, Vol.
39, No. 2, pp 90-97, (Oct 2009)

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