The thermal failure analysis of microstrip silicon detectors

The paper is aimed at investigating the thermal failure analysis of microstrip silicon detectors caused by the radiation environment in large collider experiments. Damages in the bulk of the silicon wafer and as well at its surface generated by irradiation lead to an increase of the leakage current and hence the power dissipation in the detector. Cooling of the silicon detector together with readout chips and other electronic components has to be investigated in order to avoid the thermal runaway [H.-J. Ziock et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 342 (1994) 96; W.O. Miller, C. Haber, A. Seiden, Thermal runaway in silicon strip detectors, CERN/ATLAS Internal Note, INDET-NO-102, April 1995; T. Kohriki, T. Kondo, H. Iwasaki, S. Terada, Y. Unno, T. Ohsugi, IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. NS-43(3) (1996)]. This effect would cause the failure of the detector. In simulations which have been carried out we made use of the finite element method (FEM). three-dimensional (3D) thermal–electric elements from the ANSYS package [ANSYS, Engineering Analysis Systems, Swanson Analysis System Inc., Houston, PA 15342, USA] have been used for analyzing the thermal behavior of the silicon sensors after 10 yr of operation in the radiation environment.