Eur. Phys. J. C (2013) 73: 2445
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-013-2445-3

Special Article - Tools for Experiment and Theory

High voltage capacitors for low background experiments

¹ Max-Planck Institut für Physik, Munich, Germany
² University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
³ Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, Geel, Belgium
⁴ Physik Department and Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany
⁵ Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
⁶ Max-Planck Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany
⁷ Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia

^* e-mail: chriso@unc.edu

Received: 14 March 2013
Revised: 1 May 2013
Published online: 25 May 2013

Abstract

Low background experiments place stringent constraints on amount of radioactive impurities in the materials used for their assembly. Often these are in conflict with the constraints placed on the materials by their roles in the experiment. This is especially true for certain electronic components. A high value, high voltage capacitor for use in low background experiments has been developed from specially selected radiopure materials. Electroformed copper foils are separated by polyethylene napthalate (PEN) foils and supported within a PTFE teflon spiral coil tube. The electrical performance as well as radiopurity are scrutinized here. With some minor modifications to tune the performance for the application, this capacitor can be well suited for a variety of applications in low background experiments. Here the use of the capacitor for high voltage (HV) decoupling in the operation of high purity germanium (HPGe) detectors is demonstrated.