Design of a monolithic CMOS sensor for high efficiency neutron counting

The development of CMOS Pixel Sensors (CPS) for charged particles detection had led to promising applications for dosimetry. Based on our previous studies on the detection of fast and thermal neutrons with a CMOS sensor originally designed for particle tracking in high energy physics, a dedicated integrated CMOS sensor for efficient neutron counting is presented. This sensor has been designed and fabricated in a 0.35 pm CMOS process. It is a low noise, low power consumption sensor with a sensitive area of 6.55 mm(2) and a digital output. The test results indicate that it is suitable for neutron detection, thanks to its equivalent input noise charge of less than 400 e(-), and a 20 kHz detection frequency. In this paper the prototype is presented for both its circuit design and test results. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.