This is an extended version of a paper which was presented at the 2008 Denver X-Ray Conference and which has been submitted to "Advances in X-Ray Analysis". Abstract The accuracy and precision of energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) improve with improved detector energy resolution. However, there are always trade-offs between the highest energy resolution and the highest count rates, there are practical difficulties in achieving the very best energy resolution, and there are many system

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... level issues beyond energy resolution alone. Energy resolution is commonly used to differentiate systems but the benefits of improved energy resolution, in accuracy and precision of the analytical results, are not always clear. In the results reported here, EDXRF analysis has been carried out on a set of reference materials as a function of energy resolution. Several different detectors were used, including Si-PIN diodes, silicon drift diodes (SDD), and CdTe detectors. Their operating parameters were adjusted to give a range of energy resolutions. At 5.9 keV, the resolution ranged from 139 eV to 325 eV for SDD and Si-PIN devices, and to 450 eV for CdTe. The source was a 40 kVp W anode X-ray tube used in a backscatter geometry and the spectra were analyzed using the XRF-FP software.