Neutron irradiation effects in InP/InGaAs single heterojunction bipolar transistors

Abstract

In this paper we report the effects of epi-thermal and high energy neutron irradiation on the DC characteristics of InP/InGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors. Significant current gain degradation and collector-emitter offset voltage o shift are the two predominant effects observed on the devices irradiated up to 10 15 n/cm 2 . The current gain degradation is attributed to the increasing base current due to the increased recombination and tunnel-assisted trapping components. Theo shift is explained by the growing base-collector (B-C) junction current caused by the defects introduced in the B-C space charge region (SCR). High, 2, values of the base current ideality factor are modeled using the Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination and tunnel-assisted trapping in the base-emitter (B-E) SCR. Finally, devices with the higher emitter perimeter-to-area (P/A) ratio (smaller emitter) showed less degradation than the larger devices, suggesting that the degradation is primarily due to the change of the bulk properties.

Effect of Neutron Irradiation on the Electronic and Optical Properties of AlGaAs/InGaAs-Based Quantum Well Structures

“…Neutron irradiation leads to a decrease in the output power of solar cells based on InGaAs due to a decrease in the lifetime of minority charge carriers scattered in traps due to displacement damage [9]. The InGaAs single heterojunction bipolar transistors irradiated up to a 6 × 10 14 cm −2 1 MeV equivalent neutron fluence, showing significant current gain degradation [10]. Neutron irradiation of AlGaAs/GaAs HEMTs up to fluences of 5 × 10 14 neutrons•cm −2 has shown that their variations in static, small-signal, and noise parameters undergo rather small changes [11].…”

The Study of Deep Level Traps and Their Influence on Current Characteristics of InP/InGaAs Heterostructures

“…The InP/InGaAs material system has the advantages of high electron mobility and large hetero-junction offsets, which promote the realization of InP-based heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) in high-speed analog circuits [1]. In space communication systems, the degradations induced by electron [2], neutron [3] and proton irradiation would cause issues of reliability.…”