ABSTRACT
There are two ways of signal processing for baggage scanning with energy sensitive semiconductor detectors: photon counting and spectroscopy. Baggage scanning equipment needs to detect bulk, sheet, liquid, and slurry explosives, using x-ray to scan the objects. Traditional radiation detection systems use scintillator technology; ceramic or organic scintillators detect those photons that have passed through the object and produce a visible light signal. Semiconductor pixel detectors require a connection from the pads on the detector material to the bond pads on the application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Key ASIC challenges are present in spectroscopic and photon-counting systems due to high flux and pileup that affect both the count rate linearity and the spectral response. The way to counteract the problem is to use smaller pixels, but smaller pixels lead to more charge sharing. In this respect, the various chips offer an interesting combination of relatively small pixels and still very good energy resolution.
