Transient Current Analysis of Silicon Carbide Neutron Detector Using SRIM and TCAD

Abstract

Since neutrons are electrically neutral, the methods used to detect neutrons generally rely on secondary charged particles, which are produced by the interaction of neutrons and neutron conversion materials (such as <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">6</sup> LiF, <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">10</sup> B). In this report, the SRIM code has been used to analyze the ionization properties of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha $ </tex-math></inline-formula> particles and <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> H particles traveling through the Silicon Carbide (SiC) diode, and subsequently, the final Bragg ionization distribution has been obtained. Next, according to the obtained ionization distribution of secondary particles, the linear energy transfer (LET) distribution of the secondary particles is extraced accurately. Finally, based on the distribution of LET, Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) simulations are utilized to analyze the transient current pulses of thin-film-coated and trench-type SiC diodes. In addition, the effects of particle energy and applied reverse bias on the output pulse characteristics of SiC diodes are also explored. Essentially, this paper augments the understanding of output response from SiC neutron detectors, and for trench-type detectors, the order of output current pulse amplitude decreases significantly and has a long-tail. Therefore, the trench-type detectors not only need a more advanced fabrication process but also require the design of dedicated readout electronics.