Simulation of photon and charge transport in X-ray imaging semiconductor sensors

A fully stochastic model for the imaging properties of X-ray silicon pixel detectors is presented. Both integrating and photon counting configurations have been considered, as well as scintillator-coated structures. The model is based on three levels of Monte Carlo simulations; photon transport and absorption using MCNP, full band Monte Carlo simulation of charge transport and system level Monte Carlo simulation of the imaging performance of the detector system. In the case of scintillator-coated detectors, the light scattering in the detector layers has been simulated using a Monte Carlo method. The image resolution was found to be much lower in scintillator-coated systems due to large light spread in thick scintillator layers. A comparison between integrating and photon counting readout methods shows that the image resolution can be slightly enhanced using a photon-counting readout. In addition, the proposed model has been used to study charge-sharing effects on the energy resolution in photon counting detectors. The simulation shows that charge-sharing effects are pronounced in pixel detectors with a pixel size below 170 x 170 mum(2). A pixel size of 50 x 50 mum(2) gives a highly distorted energy spectrum due to charge sharing. This negative effect can only be resolved by introducing advanced counting schemes, where neighbouring pixels communicate in order to resolve the charge sharing. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.