Development of a highly pixelated direct charge sensor, Topmetal-I, for ionizing radiation imaging

Using industrial standard 0.35{\mu}m CMOS Integrated Circuit process, we realized a highly pixelated sensor that directly collects charge via metal nodes placed on the top of each pixel and forms two dimensional images of charge cloud distribution. The first version, Topmetal-I, features a 64x64 pixel array of 80{\mu}m pitch size. Direct charge calibration reveals an average capacitance of 210fF per pixel. The charge collection noise is near the thermal noise limit. With the readout, individual pixel channels exhibit a most probable equivalent noise charge of 330e-.