We are developing pixel sensors with ‘3D’ structures in which columnar electrodes penetrate the entire bulk of high resistivity, silicon substrate. Unlike conventional, planar processed p-n junction diode detectors, which collect deposited electric charge at their surface electrodes, the buried electrodes of the 3D devices create internal electric fields that sweep electric charge laterally within the silicon bulk. This new architecture offers several performance advantages, albeit at the cost of more complex device processing. 3D detector s have now been chosen for large area, pixel detector arrays to replace the phosphor screen-CCD detector systems currently used for protein crystallography, and for HEP applications requiring exceptional radiation hardness. By the use of vertical plasma processing, both 3D and 2D planar detectors have been processed with ‘active edges’, a technology that ensures charge collection to within a few microns of the physical edge of the device.

We describe the fabrication of these detectors and present some of the test data obtained to date using both synchrotron X-ray microbeams and minimum ionizing particle beams. New data will be presented of energy resolved response maps made using a micron size X-ray beam at the ESRF, that enabled precise measurement of the charge-splitting boundary zones between pixel cells; and the response at the edges of the detectors.

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