Design and Simulation of 3-D CdTe Pillar Detectors

In this article, a proposed 3-D cadmium telluride (CdTe) detector structure is presented and investigated. The electrical performance of the proposed structure is studied using 3-D TCAD simulations. The obtained results could be considered as a proof of concept for the feasibility of the performance of the presented detector under different operating conditions. For the proposed structure, the collection time is found to be about 1.3 ns at 15 V. The fast and hard response of the structure makes it suitable for high energy beams detection. The very low leakage current, which is about 16 pA at 16 V, allows the application of high bias voltages. Higher bias voltages (up to 16 V) may be required to decrease the proposed CdTe detector collection time without affecting its quality. Although the proposed detector structure is more appropriate to be biased at high voltages, these voltage values are still more less than those required in 2-D detectors. Based on this study, the proposed 3-D CdTe detector can be recommended for future high-energy physics and medical applications.