Performance of Silicon Surface Barrier Detectors with Charge Sensitive Amplifiers

Silicon surface barrier diode detectors of 1 cm
²
and 25 mm
²
sensitive area have given pulse height spectral resolutions of 17 kev and 13-½ kev (FWHM) respectively, for 5.5 mev alpha particles. Reverse currents at 500 volts bias were less than 1 × 10
^-6
amps/cm
²
with breakdown in excess of 1000 volts. A charge sensitive amplifier contributes 3-½ and 10 kev noise (FWHM) with an input capacitive loading of 20 and 180 pf respectively.