Development of an integrated CMOS sensor for efficient neutron counting

The development of CMOS Pixel Sensors (CPS) for charged particles detection had led to promising applications for dosimetry. Based on our previous studies on the high efficient detection of fast neutrons with a CMOS sensor originally designed for particle tracking in high energy physics, a new integrated CMOS sensor for efficient neutron counting is presented. This sensor has been designed and fabricated in a 0.35 μm CMOS process. It is a low noise, low power consumption sensor with direct digital output. The electrical measurement results have demonstrated that it is suitable for neutrons detection, thanks to its equivalent input noise charge of less than 400 e
^-
, and a 20 kHz detection frequency is possible. To calibrate the sensor in counting rate, α-measurements have been performed with an
²⁴¹
Am source.