  Research and development on alternative thermal neutron detection
technologies and methods are nowadays needed as a possible replacement of
3He-based ones. Commercial solid state silicon detectors, coupled with neutron
converter layers containing 6Li, have been proved to represent a viable
solution for several applications as present in literature. In order to better
understand the detailed operation and the response and efficiency of such
detectors, a series of dedicated GEANT4 simulations were performed and compared
with real data collected in a few different configurations. The results show a
remarkable agreement between data and simulations, indicating that the behavior
of the detector is fully understood.
