Fabrication and characterization of silicon based thermal neutron detector with hot wire chemical vapor deposited boron carbide converter

In order to utilize the well established silicon detector technology for neutron detection application, a silicon based thermal neutron detector was fabricated by integrating a thin boron carbide layer as a neutron converter with a silicon PIN detector. Hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD), which is a low cost, low temperature process for deposition of thin films with precise thickness was explored as a technique for direct deposition of a boron carbide layer over the metalized front surface of the detector chip. The presence of B-C bonding and 10B isotope in the boron carbide film were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry respectively. The deposition of HWCVD boron carbide layer being a low temperature process was observed not to cause degradation of the PIN detector. The response of the detector with 0.2 µm and 0.5 µm thick boron carbide layer was examined in a nuclear reactor. The pulse height spectrum shows evidence of thermal neutron response with signature of (n, α) reaction. The results presented in this article indicate that HWCVD boron carbide deposition technique would be suitable for low cost industrial fabrication of PIN based single element or 1D/2D position sensitive thermal neutron detectors.