AstroPix: A Pixelated HVCMOS Sensor for Space-Based Gamma-Ray Measurement
arXiv:2501.11698 · doi:10.1016/j.nima.2025.171021
Abstract
A next-generation medium-energy gamma-ray telescope targeting the MeV range would address open questions in astrophysics regarding how extreme conditions accelerate cosmic-ray particles, produce relativistic jet outflows, and more. One concept, AMEGO-X, relies upon the mission-enabling CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor silicon chip AstroPix. AstroPix is designed for space-based use, featuring low noise, low power consumption, and high scalability. Desired performance of the device include an energy resolution of 5 keV (or 10% FWHM) at 122 keV and a dynamic range per-pixel of 25-700 keV, enabled by the addition of a high-voltage bias to each pixel which supports a depletion depth of 500 um. This work reports on the status of the AstroPix development process with emphasis on the current version under test, version three (v3), and highlights of version two (v2). Version 3 achieves energy resolution of 10.4 +/- 3.2% at 59.5 keV and 94 +/- 6 um depletion in a low-resistivity test silicon substrate.
15 pages, 13 figures
References in corpus (5)
- The Large Area Telescope on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Mission
- The DArk Matter Particle Explorer mission
- The All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory eXplorer (AMEGO-X) Mission Concept
- Developing the Future of Gamma-ray Astrophysics with Monolithic Silicon Pixels
- Performance evaluation of the high-voltage CMOS active pixel sensor AstroPix for gamma-ray space telescopes