XPAD: pixel detector for material sciences

Currently available 2D detectors do not make full use of the high flux and high brilliance of third generation synchrotron sources. The XPAD prototype, using active pixels, has been developed to fulfil the needs of materials science scattering experiments. At the time, its prototype is build of eight modules of eight chips. The threshold calibration of /spl ap/4 10/sup 4/ pixels is discussed. Applications to powder diffraction or SAXS experiments prove that it allows to record high quality data.