**4. Discussion**

Two SiC-based microstrip detectors were fully characterized in a wide temperature range by means of electrical and spectroscopic measurements. A high stability of the detector response as a function of operating temperature as well as of applied voltage was widely demonstrated.

The very low leakage currents (current densities) from about 2 fA (4 pA/cm2) at 25 ◦C to 620 fA (1.2 nA/cm2) at 107 ◦C are among the best values measured on SiC detectors, and more than one order of magnitude lower than most silicon detectors [30,31]. Since the shot noise of the leakage current is a significant noise contribution in a radiation spectroscopy system, we can say that our SiC detectors allow the achievement of high signal-to-noise ratios. A good isolation between adjacent strips was demonstrated by the high value of the measured interstrip resistance of 5.3 TΩ, confirming that possible latent currents from adjacent strips can be considered negligible.

A very good doping uniformity of the whole epitaxial layer was also demonstrated. For the first time, a full depletion of 124 μm was reached, polarizing the detector at 600 V, and a mean value of <ND> = 5.2 × 10<sup>13</sup> cm<sup>−</sup><sup>3</sup> was determined. In comparison with previous studies, this result is the best observed [32].

The X-ray spectra acquired from a 241Am source at different voltages, temperatures, and exposure times showed high stability and a high spectroscopic resolution under all tested experimental conditions.

Different voltages were used to verify the effect of the applied bias voltage on the device performance. The spectroscopic response of our SiC detector does not significantly depend on the bias voltage, as shown in Figure 11, where two extreme bias voltages (10 V and 200 V) were used.

No tails in the spectral lines were observed, which means that no significant charge trapping occurred in these devices. Remarkably, no strong performance loss was observed at 10 V, and substantially no di fference was observed under operation between 80 V and 200 V. The possibility of using a lower voltage without losing significant information is an advantage for those applications wherein lower power consumption is desirable. The better resolution obtained at 200 V is due to a lower capacitance. We avoided operating the SiC detector above 200 V to prevent the risk of possible damages due to accidental breakdown or electrostatic discharge. Also, the exposure time to the 241Am source does not affect the spectroscopic performance of our SiC detector, as demonstrated by negligible di fferences in the peak resolution after almost 2 and 10 h of acquisition (Figure 13). This means that it is not necessary to wait for a long time before getting all the main information from the device.

Finally, it is worth noticing the high resolution and very good stability in the performance of our SiC microstrip detector between −20 ◦C and +80 ◦C (Figure 14), which pave the way for use in a wide range of applications that are prohibitive for other conventional semiconductor detectors.
