Silicon radiation detectors

The rapid progress of the past 20 years in silicon radiation detectors is reviewed. The availability of silicon as an almost ideal semiconductor material is one of the main reasons for this progress. The well-defined properties of the silicon-silicon dioxide interface allowed the development of detector structures beyond the structure of a classical diode detector, which was practically the only silicon detector structure 20 years ago. All new structures make use of an electric field parallel to the large surface of the detector. Improvements in the production of silicon detectors has lead to a substantial decrease of the detector leakage current. These detectors can achieve their best performance very close to or at room temperature.