Since the advent of semiconductor detectors, they have been developed for several generations, and their performance has been continuously improved. In this paper, we propose a new silicon drift detector structure that is different from the traditional spiral SDD structure that has a gap between the cathode ring and the width of cathode ring, increasing gradually with the increase of the radius of the cathode ring. Our new structure of spiral SDD structure has equal cathode ring gap and a given surface electric field, which has many advantages compared with the traditional structure. The novel SDD structure controllably reduces the area of silicon oxide between the spiral rings, which in turn reduces the surface leakage current due to the reduction of total oxide charge in the silicon oxide and electronic states on the silicon/silicon oxide interface. Moreover, it has better controllability to adjust this spiral ring cathode gap to achieve better surface electric field distribution, thus realizing the optimal carrier drift electric field and achieving the optimal detector performance. In order to verify this theory, we have modeled this new structure and simulated its electrical properties using the Sentaurus TCAD tool. We have also analyzed and compared different spiral ring cathode gap structures (from 10 µm to 25 µm for the gap). According to the simulation results of potential, electric field, and electron concentration, we have obtained that a spiral ring cathode gap of 10 µm has the best electrical characteristics, more uniform distribution of potential and surface electric field, and a more smooth and straight electron drift channel.
In our previous studies, the silicon drift detector (SDD) structure with a constant spiral ring cathode gap (g) and a given surface electric field has been partially investigated based on the physical model that gives an analytical solution to the integrals in the calculations. Those results show that the detector has excellent electrical characteristics with a very homogeneous carrier drift electric field. In order to cope with the implementation of the theoretical approach with a complete set of technical parameters, this paper performs different theoretical algorithms for the technical implementation of the detector performance using the Taylor expansion method to construct a model for cases where the parameter “j” is a non-integer, approximating the solution with finite terms. To verify the accuracy of this situation, we performed a simulation of the relevant electrical properties using the Sentaurus TCAD tool 2018. The electrical properties of the single and double-sided detectors are first compared, and then the effects of different equal gaps g (g = 10 μm, 20 μm, and 25 μm, respectively) on the electrical properties of the double-sided detectors are analyzed and demonstrated. By analyzing and comparing the electrical characteristics data from the simulation results, we can show that the double-sided structure has a larger transverse drift electric field, which improves the spatial position resolution as well as the response speed. The effect of the gap size on the electrical characteristics of the detector is also analyzed by analyzing three different gap bifacial detectors, and the results show that a 10 μm equal gap is the optimal design. Such results can be used in applications requiring large-area SDD, such as the pulsar X-ray autonomous navigation. in the future to provide navigation and positioning space services for spacecraft deep-space exploration.