Development of charge integrating detectors for x-ray science at high energies
However, the "stopping power" of silicon is limited; it doesn't efficiently absorb (and ultimately detect) x-rays of energies above approximately 20 keV. For x-ray science applications at higher energies (which are the primary mission of CHESS) different approaches are required; using Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) as a sensor material is one of them. The Gruner group at Cornell has chosen to develop CdTe-based versions of the world-leading MM-PAD and Keck PAD detectors, to allow experiments at x-ray energies up to 200 keV.