Experimental and theoretical study of the signal electron motion in fully depleted silicon

Imaging spectrometers based on a fully depleted silicon substrate are sensitive over the whole device volume. Therefore, a high detection efficiency for X-rays of up to 20 keV is achieved. Our experimental method facilitates measurements of the detected signal pulse height in a pixel as a function of the photon conversion position in the pixel array. Further analysis of the measurements delivers the size of a signal electron cloud after its drift from the photon conversion position to the storage cells. These results can be used to reconstruct the conversion position of each detected X-ray photon. A reconstruction accuracy of 1μm can be achieved with a pixel size of 51μm. Complementary to the measurements, we have created a physical model of the signal electron collection process. The change of the drift mobility with the electric drift field strength in the detection volume is considered in order to correctly describe the drift speed of the charge cloud. The electric field values and the values of the charge density in the detector volume are delivered by numerical device simulations with the software package 'TeSCA'. Comparisons of the simulations with the measurements confirmed the correctness of the applied physical model. We have thus established a method which enables device designers to simulate the process of signal charge collection in future detector concepts.