Patent ID: 7217324

Claim:
A method for producing an electronic GaAs detector for X-ray detection for imaging, wherein an epitaxial layer is grown on a substrate n + (or p + ) to form a semiconductor material, which includes a predetermined residual doping, wherein a thickness of the substrate is reduced by mechanical-chemical polishing, wherein a p + /i/n + structure is formed by implanting ions p + (or n + ) on an external face of the semiconductor material, wherein said p + /i/n + structure is annealed at a temperature 0 1 for a duration t i , and wherein ohmic contacts are disposed on both faces of the p + /i/n + structure, wherein individual detectors are produced by masking, passivation and chemical pickling, said method comprises the following steps: providing parallelism and thermal insulation between the substrate n + (or p + ) and a source material, wherein said source material is a wafer cut into an ingot of semi-insulating GaAs non-intentionally doped, said source material and said semiconductor material being of the same material; heating said source material to a temperature T 1 >600° C.; heating said substrate n + (or p + ) to a temperature T 2 <T 1 ; chemically interacting a reactive gas with the source material of temperature T 1 to create volatile products; and transporting said volatile products to said substrate n+ (or p+) by a pressure gradient between said heated source material and said heated substrate n+ (or p+); chemically interacting said volatile products at the surface of said substrate n + (or p+) at temperature T 2 to recompose said reactive gas and the semiconductor material, wherein a resulting thickness of the epitaxial layer is attained that is sufficient to efficiently absorb X photons.