A leading European nuclear fusion institute has developed a thin silicon strip detector for 10‐1000 keV ions. The detector consists of an active silicon layer (5 µm thick for low‐energy ions, or 25 µm thick for detection of high-­‐energy ions) bonded to a silicon support (~300 µm thick). Unlike previous ion detectors, the thin silicon strip detector exhibits high background‐to­‐signal separation and good radiation tolerance, so is effective in high gamma, neutron, or photon backgrounds. The detector works by converting ion energy directly to charge in the silicon.