TY - JOUR
T1 - Numerical simulations of pillar structured solid state thermal neutron detector
T2 - Efficiency and gamma discrimination
AU - Conway, Adam M.
AU - Wang, Tzu F.
AU - Deo, Nimanlendu
AU - Cheung, Chin L.
AU - Nikolić, Rebecca J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received July 07, 2008; revised January 28, 2009, February 25, 2009, and April 09, 2009. Current version published October 07, 2009. This work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344, LLNL-JRNL-405025.
PY - 2009/10
Y1 - 2009/10
N2 - This paper reports numerical simulations of a three-dimensionally integrated, Boron-10 (10 B) and Silicon p+, intrinsic, n+ (PIN) diode micropillar array for thermal neutron detection. The inter-digitated device structure has a high probability of interaction between the Si PIN pillars and the charged particles (alpha and 7Li) created from the neutron- 10 B reaction. In this paper, the effect of both the 3-D geometry (including pillar width, separation and height) and energy loss mechanisms are investigated via simulations to predict the neutron detection efficiency and gamma discrimination of this structure. The simulation results are demonstrated to compare well with the experimental data available at this time, for 7- and 12-μm tall micropillar arrays. This indicates that upon scaling the pillar height, a high efficiency thermal neutron detector is possible.
AB - This paper reports numerical simulations of a three-dimensionally integrated, Boron-10 (10 B) and Silicon p+, intrinsic, n+ (PIN) diode micropillar array for thermal neutron detection. The inter-digitated device structure has a high probability of interaction between the Si PIN pillars and the charged particles (alpha and 7Li) created from the neutron- 10 B reaction. In this paper, the effect of both the 3-D geometry (including pillar width, separation and height) and energy loss mechanisms are investigated via simulations to predict the neutron detection efficiency and gamma discrimination of this structure. The simulation results are demonstrated to compare well with the experimental data available at this time, for 7- and 12-μm tall micropillar arrays. This indicates that upon scaling the pillar height, a high efficiency thermal neutron detector is possible.
KW - Monte Carlo simulation
KW - Neutron detector
KW - Semiconductor device modeling
KW - Solid state detectors
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U2 - 10.1109/TNS.2009.2021474
DO - 10.1109/TNS.2009.2021474
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:70350180253
SN - 0018-9499
VL - 56
SP - 2802
EP - 2807
JO - IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
JF - IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
IS - 5
M1 - 5280550
ER -