ARDESIA

Development of a high-resolution X-ray spectrometer for synchrotron light measurements, based on an array of Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD), low-noise electronics and with a compact design.

The aim of the project is to improve the first demonstrator already tested with DAFNE-Light synchrotron radiation sources at INFN’s Frascati National Laboratories and at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, by increasing the number of channels from 4 to 16. This increases the counting capacity, bringing it to more than 10 million counts per second. Such a high number of counts makes it possible to drastically reduce the acquisition time while maintaining a high signal.

Although ARDESIA has synchrotron light spectroscopy as its reference application, it can also be used as a detector for industrial X-ray spectroscopy and fluorescence systems, or for microanalysis systems for scanning electron microscopy, where the short acquisition time is an important parameter.

The main advantages of the invention are:

• • the high counting capacity, which reduces acquisition times;
  • a modular design, allowing more channels to be easily added;
  • monolithic construction of SDDs, so as to reduce the dead area of the detector;
  • compact construction.