Simulation of ion beam induced current in radiation detectors and microelectronic devices

Ionizing radiation is known to cause Single Event Effects (SEE) in a variety of electronic devices. The mechanism that leads to these SEEs is current induced by the radiation in these devices. While this phenomenon is detrimental in ICs, this is the basic mechanism behind the operation of semiconductor radiation detectors. To be able to predict SEEs in ICs and detector responses we need to be able to simulate the radiation induced current as the function of time. There are analytical models, which work for very simple detector configurations, but fail for anything more complex. On the other end, TCAD programs can simulate this process in microelectronic devices, but these TCAD codes costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and they require huge computing resources. In addition, in certain cases they fail to predict the correct behavior. A simulation model based on the Gunn theorem was developed and used with the COMSOL Multiphysics framework.