A full Monte Carlo simulation of silicon strip detectors

We have developed a full Monte Carlo simulation code to evaluate the electric signals produced in silicon strip detectors (SSDs) by absorbed X-rays and by thoroughgoing charged particles. This simulation can be applied in the design stage of a SSD, to study its performance as a function of the main detector parameters, like the strip pitch and the silicon thickness. All the physical processes leading to the generation of electronhole (e-h) pairs in silicon have been taken into account. Induced current signals on the readout strips are evaluated by applying the Shockley-Ramo's theorem to the charge carriers propagating inside the detector volume. Detailed maps of the electric field and of the weighting fields have been implemented to describe the motion of charge carriers and the time development of the induced current signals. A simulation of the front-end electronics, including the main sources of noise, allows to convert the current pulses generated on each strip into voltage signals. This simulation code can be very useful in studying the performance of different kind of silicon detectors (pixel, strip, drift) tailored for different applications (particle identification, tracking, X-ray detection).