Performance of a DEPFET pixel system for particle detection

Driven by the requirements of the ILC (International Linear Collider) vertex detector, a prototype system based on DEPFET pixels has been developed. The system utilizes a 64 _ 128 pixel matrix with 28:5 _ 36 mm2 pixels, operated by dedicated chips for fast steering and readout. This paper will report on results for X-ray detection in the energy range between 6 and 40 keV. In addition, the system has been operated in a test beam and first results using the 6GeV electron beam at the DESY synchrotron will be presented. The observed noise performance of the system will be compared with calculations. It will be shown that a noise figure of below ENC ¼ 100 e_ is achievable with DEPFET pixels for the ILC application leading to a signal-to-noise ratio of S=N440 for sensors as thin as 50 mm