Proceedings Article | 5 May 2012
Proc. SPIE. 8358, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives (CBRNE) Sensing XIII
KEYWORDS: Sensors, Ions, Silicon, Diffusion, Doping, Diodes, Gamma radiation, Solid state electronics, Thermal efficiency, Absorption
Solid-state thermal neutron detectors are desired to replace 3He tube based technology for the detection of special
nuclear materials. 3He tubes have some issues with stability, sensitivity to microphonics and very recently, a shortage of
3He. There are numerous solid-state approaches being investigated that utilize various architectures and material
combinations. By using the combination of high-aspect-ratio silicon PIN pillars, which are 2 μm wide with a 2 μm
separation, arranged in a square matrix, and surrounded by 10B, the neutron converter material, a high efficiency thermal
neutron detector is possible. Besides intrinsic neutron detection efficiency, neutron to gamma discrimination is an
important figure of merit for unambiguous signal identification. In this work, theoretical calculations and experimental
measurements are conducted to determine the effect of structure design of pillar structured thermal neutron detectors
including: intrinsic layer thickness, pillar height, substrate doping and incident gamma energy on neutron to gamma
discrimination.
