Silicon Drift Detectors

In the last 60 years, we have witnessed an extraordinary evolution of all the technologies bound to the production of silicon semiconductors followed in tight sequence by the progression of the silicon detectors technology. A highly refined planar technology, the capability to perform detailed device simulations allowing for a reliable introduction of innovative detector designs, together with the availability of high resistivity silicon ingots with diameter up to 6 inches has given rise to a race between the research needs with very high requirements and the quality of devices obtained in dedicated production lines. All of this, masterfully coupled to on purpose developed electronics chains, gives us today the possibility to realize specialized detection systems, whose performances match the observational needs of modern astrophysics. It has to be underlined that the, sometime astonishing, progression of results in the silicon detector development field has been very often the result of an open collective endeavor between the scientific community and the production laboratories willing to embark in an evolutionary technological research, whose costs will be covered through the subsequent applications of the reached new capabilities. In what follows, together with a glance over the historical progression having brought to today’s silicon drift detectors (SDDs), an overview will be given on the tools and parameters to allow a deeper vision of the SDD technology and evaluate the opportunity to employ it in the coming missions participating this way to the next steps of this, certainly not exhausted, astonishing development path.