Fabrication of a thin silicon detector with excellent thickness uniformity

Abstract We have fabricated and tested a thin silicon detector with the specific goal of having a very good thickness uniformity. SOI technology was used in the detector fabrication. The detector was designed to be used as a ΔE detector in a silicon telescope for measuring solar energetic particles in space. The detector thickness was specified to be 20 μm with an rms thickness uniformity of±0.5%. The active area consists of three separate elements, a round centre area and two surrounding annular segments. A new method was developed for measuring the thickness uniformity based on a modified Fizeau interferometer. The thickness uniformity specification was well met with the measured rms thickness variation of 43 nm. The detector was electrically characterized by measuring the I – V and C – V curves and the performance was verified using a 241 Am alpha source.