AstroPix: A pixelated HVCMOS sensor for space-based gamma-ray measurement

Amanda L. Steinhebel; Daniel P. Violette; Regina Caputo; Anthony Affolder; Autumn Bauman; Carolyn Chinatti; Aware Deshmukh; Vitaliy Fadayev; Yasushi Fukazawa; Manoj Jadhav; Carolyn Kierans; Bobae Kim; Jihee Kim; Henry Klest; Olivia Kroger; Kavic Kumar; Shin Kushima; Jean Marie Lauenstein; Adrien Laviron; Richard Leys; Forest Martinez-Mckinney; Jessica Metcalfe; Zachary Metzler; John W. Mitchell; Norito Nakano; Jennifer Ott; Ivan Peric; Jeremy S. Perkins; Max R. Rudin; Taylor (K W.). Shin; Grant Sommer; Nicolas Striebig; Yusuke Suda; Hiroyasu Tajima; Janeth Valverde; Maria Zurek

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2025.171021

AstroPix: A pixelated HVCMOS sensor for space-based gamma-ray measurement

Amanda L. Steinhebel
, Daniel P. Violette
, Regina Caputo
, Anthony Affolder
, Autumn Bauman
, Carolyn Chinatti
, Aware Deshmukh
, Vitaliy Fadayev
, Yasushi Fukazawa
, Manoj Jadhav
, Carolyn Kierans
, Bobae Kim
, Jihee Kim
, Henry Klest
, Olivia Kroger
, Kavic Kumar
, Shin Kushima
, Jean Marie Lauenstein
, Adrien Laviron
, Richard Leys

Forest Martinez-Mckinney, Jessica Metcalfe, Zachary Metzler, John W. Mitchell, Norito Nakano, Jennifer Ott, Ivan Peric, Jeremy S. Perkins, Max R. Rudin, Taylor (K W.). Shin, Grant Sommer, Nicolas Striebig, Yusuke Suda, Hiroyasu Tajima, Janeth Valverde, Maria Zurek

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

A next-generation medium-energy gamma-ray telescope targeting the MeV range would address open questions in astrophysics regarding how extreme conditions accelerate cosmic-ray particles, produce relativistic jet outflows, and more. One concept, AMEGO-X, relies upon the mission-enabling CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor silicon chip AstroPix. AstroPix is designed for space-based use, featuring low noise, low power consumption, and high scalability. Desired performance of the device include an energy resolution of 5 keV (or 10% FWHM) at 122 keV and a dynamic range per-pixel of 25–700 keV, enabled by the addition of a high-voltage bias to each pixel which supports a depletion depth of 500 μm. This work reports on the status of the AstroPix development process with emphasis on the current version under test, version three (v3), and highlights of version two (v2). Version 3 achieves energy resolution of 10.4±3.2% at 59.5 keV and 94±6 μm depletion in a low-resistivity test silicon substrate.

Original language	English
Article number	171021
Journal	Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume	1083
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2025.171021
State	Published - Mar 2026
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of engineers and technicians at all participating intuitions, including but in no way limited to Kenneth Simms, David Durachka, Ryan Boggs, Timothy Cundiff, and Kirsten Affolder. This work is funded in part by 18-APRA18-0084 and 20-RTF20-0003 and is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, USA, Office of Science, USA, Office of Nuclear Physics, USA, and Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) funding from Argonne National Laboratory, USA, provided by the Director, Office of Science, of the U. S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. ALS and DV acknowledge that research was sponsored by NASA, USA through a contract with ORAU. KK and ZM acknowledge that this material is based upon work supported by NASA, USA under award number 80GSFC21M0002. YS's work was supported by JSPS, Japan KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP23K13127, JP25K01028. ALS and DV acknowledge that research was sponsored by NASA, USA through a contract with ORAU. KK and ZM acknowledge that this material is based upon work supported by NASA, USA under award number 80GSFC21M0002 . YS’s work was supported by JSPS, Japan KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP23K13127 , JP25K01028 . This work is funded in part by 18-APRA18-0084 and 20-RTF20-0003 and is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, USA , Office of Science, USA , Office of Nuclear Physics, USA , and Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) funding from Argonne National Laboratory, USA , provided by the Director, Office of Science, of the U. S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Keywords

Astrophysics instrumentation
CMOS
Gamma-ray detector
MeV gamma ray
Silicon

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10.1016/j.nima.2025.171021

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Steinhebel, A. L., Violette, D. P., Caputo, R., Affolder, A., Bauman, A., Chinatti, C., Deshmukh, A., Fadayev, V., Fukazawa, Y., Jadhav, M., Kierans, C., Kim, B., Kim, J., Klest, H., Kroger, O., Kumar, K., Kushima, S., Lauenstein, J. M., Laviron, A., ... Zurek, M. (2026). AstroPix: A pixelated HVCMOS sensor for space-based gamma-ray measurement. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 1083, Article 171021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2025.171021

@article{39edda60a10a4763bb7e8987980b2ed4,

title = "AstroPix: A pixelated HVCMOS sensor for space-based gamma-ray measurement",

abstract = "A next-generation medium-energy gamma-ray telescope targeting the MeV range would address open questions in astrophysics regarding how extreme conditions accelerate cosmic-ray particles, produce relativistic jet outflows, and more. One concept, AMEGO-X, relies upon the mission-enabling CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor silicon chip AstroPix. AstroPix is designed for space-based use, featuring low noise, low power consumption, and high scalability. Desired performance of the device include an energy resolution of 5 keV (or 10\% FWHM) at 122 keV and a dynamic range per-pixel of 25–700 keV, enabled by the addition of a high-voltage bias to each pixel which supports a depletion depth of 500 μm. This work reports on the status of the AstroPix development process with emphasis on the current version under test, version three (v3), and highlights of version two (v2). Version 3 achieves energy resolution of 10.4±3.2\% at 59.5 keV and 94±6 μm depletion in a low-resistivity test silicon substrate.",

keywords = "Astrophysics instrumentation, CMOS, Gamma-ray detector, MeV gamma ray, Silicon",

author = "Steinhebel, \{Amanda L.\} and Violette, \{Daniel P.\} and Regina Caputo and Anthony Affolder and Autumn Bauman and Carolyn Chinatti and Aware Deshmukh and Vitaliy Fadayev and Yasushi Fukazawa and Manoj Jadhav and Carolyn Kierans and Bobae Kim and Jihee Kim and Henry Klest and Olivia Kroger and Kavic Kumar and Shin Kushima and Lauenstein, \{Jean Marie\} and Adrien Laviron and Richard Leys and Forest Martinez-Mckinney and Jessica Metcalfe and Zachary Metzler and Mitchell, \{John W.\} and Norito Nakano and Jennifer Ott and Ivan Peric and Perkins, \{Jeremy S.\} and Rudin, \{Max R.\} and Shin, \{Taylor (K W.).\} and Grant Sommer and Nicolas Striebig and Yusuke Suda and Hiroyasu Tajima and Janeth Valverde and Maria Zurek",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025",

year = "2026",

month = mar,

doi = "10.1016/j.nima.2025.171021",

language = "English",

volume = "1083",

journal = "Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment",

issn = "0168-9002",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

Steinhebel, AL, Violette, DP, Caputo, R, Affolder, A, Bauman, A, Chinatti, C, Deshmukh, A, Fadayev, V, Fukazawa, Y, Jadhav, M, Kierans, C, Kim, B, Kim, J, Klest, H, Kroger, O, Kumar, K, Kushima, S, Lauenstein, JM, Laviron, A, Leys, R, Martinez-Mckinney, F, Metcalfe, J, Metzler, Z, Mitchell, JW, Nakano, N, Ott, J, Peric, I, Perkins, JS, Rudin, MR, Shin, T, Sommer, G, Striebig, N, Suda, Y, Tajima, H, Valverde, J & Zurek, M 2026, 'AstroPix: A pixelated HVCMOS sensor for space-based gamma-ray measurement', Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, vol. 1083, 171021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2025.171021

AstroPix: A pixelated HVCMOS sensor for space-based gamma-ray measurement. / Steinhebel, Amanda L.; Violette, Daniel P.; Caputo, Regina et al.
In: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 1083, 171021, 03.2026.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

TY - JOUR

T1 - AstroPix

T2 - A pixelated HVCMOS sensor for space-based gamma-ray measurement

AU - Steinhebel, Amanda L.

AU - Violette, Daniel P.

AU - Caputo, Regina

AU - Affolder, Anthony

AU - Bauman, Autumn

AU - Chinatti, Carolyn

AU - Deshmukh, Aware

AU - Fadayev, Vitaliy

AU - Fukazawa, Yasushi

AU - Jadhav, Manoj

AU - Kierans, Carolyn

AU - Kim, Bobae

AU - Kim, Jihee

AU - Klest, Henry

AU - Kroger, Olivia

AU - Kumar, Kavic

AU - Kushima, Shin

AU - Lauenstein, Jean Marie

AU - Laviron, Adrien

AU - Leys, Richard

AU - Martinez-Mckinney, Forest

AU - Metcalfe, Jessica

AU - Metzler, Zachary

AU - Mitchell, John W.

AU - Nakano, Norito

AU - Ott, Jennifer

AU - Peric, Ivan

AU - Perkins, Jeremy S.

AU - Rudin, Max R.

AU - Shin, Taylor (K W.).

AU - Sommer, Grant

AU - Striebig, Nicolas

AU - Suda, Yusuke

AU - Tajima, Hiroyasu

AU - Valverde, Janeth

AU - Zurek, Maria

PY - 2026/3

Y1 - 2026/3

N2 - A next-generation medium-energy gamma-ray telescope targeting the MeV range would address open questions in astrophysics regarding how extreme conditions accelerate cosmic-ray particles, produce relativistic jet outflows, and more. One concept, AMEGO-X, relies upon the mission-enabling CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor silicon chip AstroPix. AstroPix is designed for space-based use, featuring low noise, low power consumption, and high scalability. Desired performance of the device include an energy resolution of 5 keV (or 10% FWHM) at 122 keV and a dynamic range per-pixel of 25–700 keV, enabled by the addition of a high-voltage bias to each pixel which supports a depletion depth of 500 μm. This work reports on the status of the AstroPix development process with emphasis on the current version under test, version three (v3), and highlights of version two (v2). Version 3 achieves energy resolution of 10.4±3.2% at 59.5 keV and 94±6 μm depletion in a low-resistivity test silicon substrate.

AB - A next-generation medium-energy gamma-ray telescope targeting the MeV range would address open questions in astrophysics regarding how extreme conditions accelerate cosmic-ray particles, produce relativistic jet outflows, and more. One concept, AMEGO-X, relies upon the mission-enabling CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor silicon chip AstroPix. AstroPix is designed for space-based use, featuring low noise, low power consumption, and high scalability. Desired performance of the device include an energy resolution of 5 keV (or 10% FWHM) at 122 keV and a dynamic range per-pixel of 25–700 keV, enabled by the addition of a high-voltage bias to each pixel which supports a depletion depth of 500 μm. This work reports on the status of the AstroPix development process with emphasis on the current version under test, version three (v3), and highlights of version two (v2). Version 3 achieves energy resolution of 10.4±3.2% at 59.5 keV and 94±6 μm depletion in a low-resistivity test silicon substrate.

KW - Astrophysics instrumentation

KW - CMOS

KW - Gamma-ray detector

KW - MeV gamma ray

KW - Silicon

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105020675997

U2 - 10.1016/j.nima.2025.171021

DO - 10.1016/j.nima.2025.171021

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105020675997

SN - 0168-9002

VL - 1083

JO - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment

JF - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment

M1 - 171021

ER -

AstroPix: A pixelated HVCMOS sensor for space-based gamma-ray measurement

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Keywords

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