MPI Halbleiterlabor  Otto-Hahn-Ring 6  München  The Halbleiterlabor is in the unique position to have a highly flexible production line, which can process ultra-pure silicon wafers on both sides and maintain this purity through all process steps. The devices can be produced on wafer level (Fig. 1), be cut and mounted (Fig. 2) and tested (Fig. 3) without even leaving the cleanroom area. The technology – originally developed for detectors in nuclear physics more than 20 years ago – is constantly being optimized and extended. These optimizations are aimed towards low noise performance (by minimizing leakage current and integrating electronics on-chip), low-energy response (by ultra-thin entrance windows), and large area devices (by tight process control and extensive inspection-repair strategies). The Laboratory routinely produces several detector types which have been invented by its members and have been constantly improved since then: Silicon strip detectors are used in high energy physics experiments like the HERA-B experiment at DESY, the future ATLAS detector at CERN and in ultra-relativistic heavy ion physics experiment like CERES at the CERN SPS. Fully depleted charge coupled devices with parallel readout are used onboard the X-ray satellite XMM-Newton. Recent productions with framestore technology (smaller pixels, faster readout) are foreseen for the NASA/MPE mission DUO. Silicon drift detectors are used for high-resolution, high-rate spectroscopy at synchrotron light sources like ESRF/Grenoble or HASYLAB at DESY, for X-ray microscopy at BESSY and for the hadron physics experiment SIDDHARTA. They also work in the famous NASA Mars rover and are foreseen as fast timing detector for the ESA mission XEUS. Active pixel devices with DEPFET cells as amplifying element are developed for XEUS and TESLA (Fig. 4). High position resolution, radiation hardness, thinned material, fast readout and integrated amplification mechanisms are key items for this next detector generation. The activities of the MPI Halbleiterlabor also find interest in industry. In particular, products based on silicon drift diodes originally designed and fabricated for scientific experiments have been successfully introduced as X-ray detectors for electron microprobe analysis in scanning electron microscopes. The MPI Halbleiterlabor (semiconductor laboratory) is a joint research facility of the Max- Planck institutes for physics and for extraterrestrial physics. In an 800 m 2 clean room, engineers and technicians produce silicon detectors for the research activities of the Max-Planck institutes - in particular for X-ray astronomy and high-energy physics. MPI Halbleiterlabor Figure 2 Fig. 2: The Mounting /bonding area includes a water-guided laser dicer (back left) and a fully automatic bonder (front). Fig 1: The production area contains an 8-tube furnace for thermal and LPCVD processing (back left), inspection and measurement equipment (front) and wet etching (back right). Sputtering and lithography areas are not shown here. Figure 2 Fig. 3: In the measurement area, the detector response and radiation hardness can be tested with X-rays. Figure 2 Fig. 4: Recently processed active pixel matrix with DEPFET amplifiers.