Radiation‐Tolerant Electronic Devices Using Wide Bandgap Semiconductors

Abstract

These energetic particles, such as electrons, protons, neutrons, X-rays, or gamma rays, induced damage in materials (used in electronic devices) through total ionization and displacement, [4] which would affect the reliability of the electronic devices. [5][6][7] Electronics failure occurs in harsh and inaccessible environments through various paths, such as electromagnetic waves, nuclear reactions, and high-frequency communications systems. Therefore, the radiationhardened requirements of the deployed electronic technology depend on the specific high-energy photons and particles in the radiation environment. For example, Mars exploration requires a special proton anti-radiation in electronics. At the same time, the safety supervision and inspection of the contaminated nuclear area are suggested to be equipped with high resilience towards the alpha, beta, and gamma rays. The development of radiation-hard electric circuits over the years has led researchers to consider the application of functional anti-irradiation material to devices. The current focus is on developing complementary metal-oxide semiconductors (CMOS) with wide bandgap semiconductors (WBGs), which are well suited to large-area aerospace applications. [8][9][10] As shown in Figure 1, a notable material class of WBGs can be listed as metal oxides (MOS), transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), silicon carbide, gallium nitride, and others. WBGs materials contribute robust properties under harsh conditions due to their strong electronic compliance, high-temperature competence, and strong atomic bond energy. [11][12][13][14][15][16] They have been proposed as favorable materials for aerospace and other radiation-hardened applications. Generally, the bandgap in the semiconductor reflects the extra energy that a valence electron must access to become a free electron. Its large bandgap of more than 3 eV guarantees inherent reliability in the semiconductors, providing transparency for the low-energy photons. The large, spherical nsorbitals in the conduction band (CB) of MOS also play a critical role in high dopability for hosting a high density of electrons, leading to the remarkably tolerance to various radiation fluences. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] Understanding the apparent immunity of the WBGs to various radiation environments and radiation-hard electronic engineering would be critical for pushing the technology further and understanding its limitations. Efforts to address these issues have been underway over the past two decades. Substantial progress has also been made in designing radiation-hard thin films transistors (TFTs) with ZnO, Ga 2 O 3 , In 2 O 3 , SnO 2 , IGZO, SiC, GaN, and many other WBGs, The aspiration of electronic technologies that are resistant to high-energy cosmic radiation is essential for current harsh radiation environment exploration. Integrated circuits mostly require post-processing after designing, making their structures more complex than the standard systems. Thus, unique de...

Bridging the gap: an in-depth comparison of CVT-grown layered transition metal dichalcogenides for supercapacitor applications

“…The exhibition of double layer (EDLC) supercapacitor behaviour by transition metal dichalcogenides is already reported in the literature. 21,38,39…”

“…Six different TMDC materials, namely TaS 2 , TaSe 2 , WS 2 , WSe 2 , ZrS 2 and ZrSe 2 , were synthesized and tested for electrochemical property studies without using conductive additives. Although TMDCs can be synthesized with CVD, hydrothermal, microwave-assisted or solution phase techniques, [21][22][23][24] we opted for the chemical vapor transport (CVT) technique due to its high purity crystalline nature yield. 25 The CVT technique is highly suitable for our work as it only requires distinctive constituent materials to grow a particular TMDC compound and does not require unnecessary precursors as in the case of other techniques.…”

Enhancement of electrical stability of metal oxide thin-film transistors against various stresses

“…[128][129][130] The dominant radiationinduced channel defects are known to be oxygen vacancies. 131 Oxygen vacancies formed by radiation would act as shallowdonor states and/or deep-trap states. 19 Shallow-donor states near the CBM can generate excessive carriers and cause threshold voltage shift, 132,133 while deep-trap states at the band-tail and mid-gap can capture holes and electrons for a long period of time, affording an increase in subthreshold swing (SS) and carrier mobility.…”

Enhancing radiation-resistance of amorphous indium–zinc-oxide thin-film transistors by group IV transition element doping

“…17 Moreover, a wide bandgap exceeding 3 eV has the potential to ensure the tolerance of AOSs in harsh environments. 18 To investigate the radiation-hardness of various AOS materials, including indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO), zinc oxide (ZnO), and indium-gallium-tin-oxide (IGTO), [19][20][21] numerous studies have been conducted. For instance, our research group performed a comprehensive investigation on the effect of proton irradiation on AOS thin films and the degradation mechanisms affecting the electrical performance of thin-film transistors (TFTs).…”