SBIR-STTR Award

Coupling high intensity and high flux x-ray capabilities with impact drivers (lasers, gas guns, etc.) provide opportunity for directly probing material deformation mechanisms under extreme loading conditions. Limitations in existing x-ray detection capabilities prevent complete mapping of the temporal evolution of dynamic material events under fast loading rates. X-ray energy detection > 20 keV is needed in large format imagers that provide fast frame rate sampling capability and many frames of data collection/storage. On Phase I BFE will investigate direct x-ray detection using a 200 m thick CdTe Schottky detector and BFE readout integrated circuit (ROIC). BFE will design a 1280x1024 format ROIC/detector with 25 m pixel pitch to achieve 10 nsec temporal resolution. The ROIC pixels will utilize in-pixel analog data storage capacitors to acquire 25 frames at 100Mf/s. A ROIC test chip will be processed on Phase I. Evaluation of the Phase I test chip will verify critical circuit operation prior to full array format fabrication and demonstration on Phase II.