SEMICONDUCTOR GAMMA RAY DETECTOR ELEMENT CONFIGURATION OF AXIALLY SERIES MULTI-CHAMBER STRUCTURE FOR IMPROVING DETECTOR DEPLETION PLAN

摘要

A High Purity Germanium (HPGe) radiation detector has been specially machined to be this invented series multi-chamber coaxial configuration. So extra-large volume HPGe detectors can be easily produced with current available HPGe crystal, and the entire detector body structure can be uniquely optimized in accordance with the exact semiconductor crystal ingot situation so the overall detector can be easier depleted and the photo-induced carriers can be better collected as the signal output. This invention makes extra-large efficiency HPGe gamma ray detectors of 100% to 200%, and maybe even higher efficiency, possible and easier to be produced based on current HPGe crystal supply capability. The invention improves the detector performance for very high energy gamma ray detection especially. The invention could also be applied to any other kind of semiconductor materials if any of them could be purified enough for this application in future.

主权项

1. A semiconductor Gamma Ray detector comprising:
a cylindrical semiconductor body of crystal construction having two ends at one end a center hole is formed that extends from said one end of said cylindrical semiconductor body and stops just prior to the other end of said cylindrical semiconductor body; a one radial cut construction is formed in said cylindrical semiconductor body and extends from the outer cylinder surface of said cylindrical semiconductor body and stops just prior to said center hole of said cylindrical semiconductor body, electrically separates said cylindrical semiconductor body to be two chambers; a first electrode formed on the inner surface of said center hole of said cylindrical semiconductor body; a second electrode formed on the whole out surface of said cylindrical semiconductor body that is composed of the entire surface of said the other end of said cylindrical semiconductor body, the entire surface of said the outer cylinder surface of said semiconductor body, the entire surface of said radial cut construction, and the surface of the most outer area of said one end of said semiconductor body except the small area that lies outside the opening of said center hole on said one end of said cylindrical semiconductor body; and a passivation layer formed on said the small area that lies outside the opening of said center hole on said one end of said cylindrical semiconductor body that seals both the openings of said first electrode and second electrode; wherein said cylindrical semiconductor body forms two axial layers of a coaxial nature construction series connected together that are electrically depleted independently under reversed bias.