Printed silver contacts for Cd_1−xZn_xTe radiation detectors

In this work, we evaluate a novel jetink printing method with silver nano particle ink for fabrication of metal–semiconductor–metal structures based on Cd_1−xZn_xTe for gamma-ray detector applications. Contact printing technology offers several advantages in terms of infrastructure and prototype cycle time. For comparison and reference similar samples with thermally evaporated silver and indium contacts were processed and analyzed. The MSM devices were investigated by various static and dynamic characterization methods including current–voltage (I–V), power spectral density of noise (PSD), transient current technique (TCT), and gamma-spectroscopy. In addition, impact of thermal annealing up to 200 °C was studied. The devices with the printed contacts exhibit comparable performance with the reference benchmark detectors. Preliminary study indicate that the printed contacts are immune to moderate thermal treatment, and moreover, show signs of improvement with annealing.