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Hardness-assurance issues for lateral PNP bipolar junction transistors

Journal Article · · IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/23.488761· OSTI ID:203684
; ;  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)
  2. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  3. RLP Research, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  4. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane, IN (United States)
  5. Analog Devices, Inc., Wilmington, MA (United States)

The dose-rate dependence of gain degradation in lateral PNP transistors is even stronger than the dependence previously reported for NPN BJTs. In this work, several hardness-assurance approaches are examined and compared to experimental results obtained at low dose rates. The approaches considered include irradiation at high dose rates while at elevated temperature and high-dose-rate irradiation followed by annealing. The lateral PNP transistors continue to degrade during post-irradiation annealing, in sharp contrast to NPN devices studied previously. High-temperature conditions significantly increase the degradation during high-dose-rate irradiation, with the amount of degradation continuing to increase with temperature throughout the range studied here (up to 125 C). The high-temperature degradation is nearly as great as that observed at very low dose rates, and is even greater when differences between {sup 60}Co and x-ray irradiation are accounted for. Since high-temperature irradiation has previously been shown to enhance the degradation in NPN transistors, this appears to be a promising hardness-assurance approach for bipolar integrated circuits. Based on these results, preliminary testing recommendations are discussed.

OSTI ID:
203684
Report Number(s):
CONF-950716--
Journal Information:
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science Journal Issue: 6Pt1 Vol. 42; ISSN 0018-9499; ISSN IETNAE
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English