This paper explores the prospect of CMOS devices to assay lead in drinking water, using calorimetry. Lead occurs together with traces of radioisotopes, e.g., 210Pb, producing γ-emissions with energies ranging from 10 keV to several 100 keV when they decay; this range is detectable in silicon sensors. In this paper we test a CMOS camera (Oxford Instruments Neo 5.5) for its general performance as a detector of X-rays and low energy γ-rays and assess its sensitivity relative to the World Health Organization upper limit on lead in drinking water. Energies from 6 keV to 60 keV are examined. The CMOS camera has a linear energy response over this range and its energy resolution is for the most part slightly better than 2%. The Neo sCMOS is not sensitive to X-rays with energies below ∼10 keV. The smallest detectable rate is 40±3mHz, corresponding to an incident activity on the chip of 7±4Bq. The estimation of the incident activity sensitivity from the detected activity relies on geometric acceptance and the measured efficiency vs. energy. We report the efficiency measurement, which is 0.08(2)% (0.0011(2)%) at 26.3keV (59.5keV). Taking calorimetric information into account we measure a minimal detectable rate of 4±1mHz (1.5±1mHz) for 26.3keV (59.5keV) γ-rays, which corresponds to an incident activity of 1.0±6Bq (57±33Bq). Toy Monte Carlo and Geant4 simulations agree with these results. These results show this CMOS sensor is well-suited as a γ- and X-ray detector with sensitivity at the few to 100 ppb level for 210Pb in a sample.
