Comparison of 1 MeV electron, Co-60 gamma and 1 MeV proton irradiation effects on silicon NPN transistors

Abstract

The total dose effects of 1 MeV electrons on the dc electrical characteristics of silicon NPN transistors are investigated in the dose range from 100 krad to 100 Mrad. The different electrical characteristics such as Gummel characteristics, excess base current ( I B ), dc current gain (h FE ), transconductance (g m ), displacement damage factor (K) and output characteristics were studied in situ as a function of total dose. A considerable increase in base current (I B ) and a decrease in h FE , g m and I CSat was observed after 1 MeV electron irradiation. The collector-base (C-B) junction capacitance of transistors was measured to estimate the change in the effective carrier concentration. After 1 MeV electron irradiation, a considerable degradation in capacitance was observed. The plot of (1/C 2 ) versus voltage shows that the effective carrier concentration and built-in voltage (V bi ) increase marginally upon 1 MeV electron irradiation. The results of 1 MeV electron irradiation were compared with 1 MeV proton and Co-60 gamma irradiation results in the same dose range. The degradation for 1 MeV electron and Co-60 gamma-irradiated transistors was significantly less when compared to 1 MeV proton-irradiated transistor. The 1 MeV proton, 1 MeV electron and Co-60 gamma-irradiated transistors were subjected to isochronal annealing to analyze the recovery of the electrical parameters. ARTICLE HISTORY

Radiation effects of 50-MeV protons on PNP bipolar junction transistors

“…It is defined as ∆I B = I B − I B pre , where I B pre and I B are the base currents of the PNP BJTs before and after irradiation. [13,14] In order to better explain the effect of proton irradiation on the radiation damage mechanism of BJTs, a model based on an ideality factor n is utilized to analyze the change in ∆I B . The expression for ∆I B is…”

Transient synergistic damage mechanism and characterization of silicon bipolar junction transistor

“…This implies that devices are concurrently subjected to both types of irradiation, giving rise to a synergistic effect (SE) of ID and DD [7][8][9]. The current research on SE of BJT devices is primarily concentrated in two aspects: The first aspect focuses on investigating the ionization/displacement SEs induced by a separate class of particles, such as electrons [10], protons [11], or ions [12,13] within the BJT. The second aspect involves employing a step-by-step testing (ionization followed by displacement) to study the SEs of total dose effect and DD on BJT devices [6,[14][15][16].…”