Saturation of the dose-rate response of bipolar transistors below 10 rad(SiO{sub 2})/s: Implications for hardness assurance
- Air Force Phillips Lab., Albuquerque, NM (United States). Microelectronics and Photonics Research Branch
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The gain degradation of modern bipolar transistors was investigated for dose rates ranging from 0.01 to {approximately}2,000 rad(SiO{sub 2})/s. Five different radiation sources were used for the exposures: three {sup 60}Co sources, a 10-keV x-ray source, and a {sup 137}Cs source. The {sup 137}Cs exposures at 0.01 rad(SiO{sub 2})/s are two orders of magnitude lower in dose rate than any previous irradiations for this process and thus facilitate comparison to the device response in space. Low-dose-rate gain degradation exceeds high-dose-rate degradation for total doses less than 1 Mrad(SiO{sub 2}), consistent with previous reports. For the first time, the gain degradation is demonstrated to be equivalent for dose rates between 0.01 and 10 rad(SiO{sub 2})/s, suggesting that the dose-rate response saturates at {approximately}10 rad(SiO{sub 2})/s for the devices studied in this work. On the basis of a recent model, high-dose-rate irradiations at 60 C were performed and found to be consistent with the room-temperature, low-dose-rate, saturated response. These results suggest several promising new approaches to bipolar space-qualification testing.
- OSTI ID:
- 32040
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940726--
- Journal Information:
- IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science Journal Issue: 6Pt1 Vol. 41; ISSN 0018-9499; ISSN IETNAE
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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