Development of compound semiconductor detectors at ESA

Development of compound semiconductor detectors at ESA

Some examples of space-borne applications that require improvements in detector technology compared with conventional Si and Ge designs are described. Properties of compound semiconductors are noted, and a range of different detector developments are briefly reviewed. Material fabrication improvements for several compound semiconductors have resulted in near Fano-limited performance.

Semiconductor Detectors - an Introduction

Microstructured semiconductor neutron detectors

Perforated semiconductor neutron detectors are compact diode detectors that operate at low power and can be fashioned to have high thermal neutron detection efficiency. Fabricated from high-purity Si wafers, the perforations are etched into the diode surface with ICP-RIE and backfilled with LiF neutron reactive material. The intrinsic thermal neutron detection efficiency depends upon many facto...

Semiconductor Photon Detectors

Development of Compound Semiconductor Devices— In Search of Immense Possibilities —

Many different compound semiconductors can be formed by changing the combination of constituent elements. Properties of alloy semiconductors composed of a plurality of compound semiconductors can be changed in a continuous fashion by changing the composition ratio. A very thin alloy semiconductor multilayer showing interesting properties can be formed by sophisticated epitaxial growth methods s...