Nine Element Si-based Pillar Structured Thermal Neutron Detector

Solid state thermal neutron detectors are desirable for replacing the current He based technology, which has some limitations arising from stability, sensitivity to microphonics and the recent shortage of He. Our approach to designing such solid state detectors is based on the combined use of high aspect ratio silicon PIN pillars surrounded by B, the neutron converter material. To date, our highest measured detection efficiency is 20%. An efficiency of greater than 50% is expected while maintaining high gamma rejection, low power operation and fast timing for multiplicity counting for our engineered device architecture. The design of our device structure, progress towards a nine channel system and detector scaling challenges are presented.