Proton and Gamma-Ray Irradiation Effects on InGaP/GaAs Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors

Abstract

Large-area (75 μm emitter diameter) InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) were irradiated either with 40 MeV protons at fluences up to 5×109 cm−2 or with Co60 γ-rays to maximum doses of 500 Mrad. Both types of radiation produced increases in generation-recombination leakage current in the emitter-base junction. The dc current gain of the HBTs decreased monotonically with increasing γ-ray dose, but was found to increase slightly for proton irradiation due to differential changes in the base and collector resistances. The HBTs appear to be well-suited to space or nuclear industry applications. © 2002 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.

Proton irradiation effects on Sb-based heterojunction bipolar transistors

“…[4][5][6][7][8] Higher energy bandgap ͑E g ͒ semiconductor devices are better for radiation hard. AlGaN / GaN high electron mobility transistors ͑GaN E g = 3.4 eV͒ irradiated with 17 MeV protons to a fluence of 7 ϫ 10 13 protons/ cm 2 barely exhibited any degradation.…”

“…9 InGaP / GaAs HBTs ͑GaAs E g = 1.4͒ showed some degradations with a similar dose of irradiation. 4,8 In this article, we report the effects of In 0.52 Al 0.48 As/ In 0.39 Ga 0.61 As 0.77 Sb 0.23 / In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As DHBTs irradiated with 5 MeV protons from 2 ϫ 10 11 to 2 ϫ 10 15 protons/ cm 2 . E-B and B-C junction characteristics, emitter, base, and collector sheet resistance, common-emitter gain current, and collector I-V characteristics of the HBTs before and after irradiation a͒ were evaluated to analyze the damages in the crystal structure from high energy protons under various doses.…”