Cryogenic radiation detector with high-density conductor array

Claim 1

A radiation detector comprising: an evacuated container with an external boundary partly constituted by two axially aligned generally cylindrical metallic peripheral wall sections; a cooled metallic cylinder extending axially within said wall sections and defining therewith an annular space, said cylinder having a closed end disposed in a transverse plane; photoelectric transducer means including a multiplicity of radiation-sensing elements disposed on said closed end in a central area of said container and confronted by a radiation-transparent window thereof parallel to said transverse plane; a stack of annular ceramic layers surrounding said cylinder at a location axially offset from said transverse plane, said stack being sintered into a solid body which forms part of a hermetic seal joining said wall sections to each other; a multiplicity of thin conductor strips radially arrayed on a surface of at least one of said layers extending inward from said wall sections toward said cylinder, each conductor strip being partly overlain by an adjoining layer of said stack leaving an inner and an outer end of the strip exposed; and a multiplicity of metallic leads in said space galvanically connecting the exposed inner ends of said conductor strips to respective radiation-sensing elements of said transducer means, each of said leads including a metal pin extending axially from the inner end of the respective strip to substantially said transverse plane and further including a radially oriented wire substantially thinner than said pin extending from a tip of said pin to a respective radiation-sensing element across a narrow annular gap separating the pins of said leads from said cylinder, said wire normally having a curvature sufficient to enable its contraction at cryogenic temperatures.