Abstract

Research on X-ray imaging sensors and systems have been carried out for several decades. To make these X-ray scanners smaller with better performance and higher operating speed is an important subject for scientific research and industrial applications.

This thesis covers a whole X-ray line-scan camera system. Special attention is given to the smart sensor micromodule design and processing technology. The smart sensor micromodule is an integrated sensor card that includes both silicon X-ray sensor array and signal-processing integrated circuits, which can perform the functions of both an optical sensor and an analog signal processor. Digital signal processing (DSP) made by application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) is also covered in this thesis.

Processing technology of the photodiode array, design of the integrated circuit, design and packaging of the micromodules are presented in this thesis. The mechanism of photodiode leakage current is studied in detail. Measured results show that the leakage current level of the photodiode array achieves 80 pA/cm² under zero bias condition, which outperforms the best photodiode reported so far.

The algorithm of the digital signal processing is also studied. The X-ray scanning system can achieve 2 m/s scanning speed with a spatial resolution of 400 mm.