Device simulations of silicon detectors: a design perspective

Device simulation allows for accurate analysis of device behavior, accounting for several physical details that cannot easily be taken into account within compact, equivalent-circuit models. This is especially true for some issues typical of the design of silicon radiation detectors, where silicon properties are exploited in a non-conventional way and radiation damage raises severe reliability concerns. In this paper, a couple of significant applications of device simulation to the investigation and design of advanced solid-state radiation sensors are presented. More specifically, (i) radiation damage influence on detectors operating at cryogenic temperatures is successfully modeled and (ii) features of an innovative scheme for CMOS active pixel sensors are analyzed by means of mixed-mode simulation tools. From these examples, the usefulness and potentiality of advanced simulation techniques in the perspective of radiation detectors can be appreciated.