Sensitivity investigation of 100-MeV proton irradiation to SiGe HBT single event effect

Abstract

In this article, the single event effect (SEE) sensitivity of silicon-germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor (SiGe HBT) device using 100 MeV proton irradiation was investigated. The simulation results indicate that the most sensitive position of the SiGe HBT device is the emitter center, where the proton crosses the larger collector-substrate (CS) junction. Furthermore, this article also conducted experimental studies using 100 MeV proton. In order to consider the influence of temperature on SEE, both simulation and experiments are conducted at a temperature of 93 K. At a cryogenic temperature, the carrier mobility increases, which leads to higher transient current peaks, but the duration of the current is significantly reduced. Notably, at the same proton flux, there is only one single event transient (SET) that occurs at 93 K. Thus, the radiation hard ability of the device increases at cryogenic temperatures. The simulation results are found to be qualitatively consistent with the 100 MeV proton experiment. To further evaluate the tolerance of the device, the impact of proton on SiGe HBT after gamma-ray (60Coγ) irradiation was investigated. As a result, as the cumulative dose increases, the introduction of traps results in a significant reduction in both the peak value and duration of the transient currents.