<title>Room-temperature x- and gamma-ray spectroscopy with silicon drift detectors</title>

Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) with integrated readout transistors combine a large sensitive area with a small total readnode capacitance and are therefore well suited for high resolution, high count rate X-ray spectroscopy. The low leakage current level obtained by elaborated process technology makes it possible to operate them at room temperature or with moderate thermo-electric cooling. The monolithic combination of several SDDs to a multichannel drift detector solves the limited of size and allows for the realization of new physics experiments and systems. Up to 3 cm<SUP>2</SUP> large SDDs for spectroscopic applications were fabricated and tested. Position sensitive X-ray systems are introduced. The description of the device principle is followed by the introduction of the multichannel drift detector concept. Layout, performance and examples of current and future applications are presented.