Analysis of surface radiation damage effects at HL-LHC fluences: Comparison of different technology options

Radiation damage effects at High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) fluences greater than 2.2 × 1016 n/cm2 1 MeV equivalent and total ionizing doses (TID) greater than 1 Grad will impose very stringent constraints in terms of radiation resistance of solid-state detectors. To cope with this design challenge, TCAD tools can be used to study different technology and design options, in order to optimize the performance of silicon detectors in terms of inter-electrode isolation and charge collection properties. A comprehensive modeling approach based on combined bulk and surface damage effects accounting for a limited number of measurable parameters needs therefore to be developed and validated over different technology options. In this work, we mainly focus on the effects of surface damage on detectors fabricated on p-type substrates by different providers. Actually, starting from standard test structure measurements (i.e. MOS capacitors, gated diodes), the integrated interface trap state density (NIT) and the oxide charge (QOX) can be extracted for different vendors and used as input parameter to the simulation tools. Test structures under study include MOS capacitors, gated-diodes, fabricated both at Hamamatsu Photonics (Japan) and at Infineon (Austria). Using High-Frequency (HF) and Quasi-Static (QS) C-V characteristics and current-voltage (I-V) measurements, the effective oxide charge density (NEFF), the surface generation velocity (s0) and the interface trap density (DIT) have been determined and compared for the two technologies before and after irradiation with X-rays with doses ranging from 0.05 to 20 Mrad(SiO2). A detailed simulation analysis on MOS capacitor capacitances and gated diode currents has been carried out, varying the previously mentioned parameters, with the aim to evaluate the effects of oxide charge density and interface trap density increase with the dose. The separate effects of different types of interface trap states have been considered as well, by varying one by one the total density of donor- and acceptor-type trap states, respectively. The effects of different trap energy distributions and capture cross sections have been evaluated within Synopsys Sentaurus TCAD device simulator by means of steady-state, AC and transient analyses. The good agreement obtained for both vendors would support the use of the model as a predictive tool to optimize the design and the operation of novel solid-state detectors in the HL-LHC scenario.