Effect of 1MeV electron beam on transistors and circuits

Abstract

It has been known that semiconductor devices operating in a radiation environment exhibited significant alterations of their electrical responses. Since an electron beam bombardment produces lattice damage in Si and charged defects in $SiO_2$, several electrical parameters of transistors exhibit significant changes. Those parameters are the current gain of BJT (Bipolar Junction Transistor) and the threshold voltage of MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor). The degradation of transistors brings about that of circuits. This paper presents the results of experiments and simulations performed to study the effects of 1MeV electron beam irradiation on selected silicon transistors and circuits. For BJTs, the current gains of npn (2N3904) and pnp (2N3906) linearly decreased as the irradiation dose increased, and from this result, the damage constants, Ks were obtained as 13.65 for 2N3904 and 22.52 for 2N3906 in MGy, indicating a more stable operation in the electron radiation environment for pnp than that for npn. The decrease of current gain was due to that of minority-carrier lifetime in the base region. For MOSFETs (CD4007s), the threshold voltages of NMOS and PMOS shifted to the lower values, which was resulted from the accumulation of charge in $SiO_2$. The charges could be categorized into fixed oxide charge and interfacial trap charge. From experimental results, the amounts of the induced charges could be quantitatively estimated. These degradations of transistors brought about the decrease in the voltage gain of CE (Common Emitter) amplifier and the shifts in the inverting voltage of inverter. Additionally, PSpice simulations of these circuits were carried out by modeling of irradiated transistors. The comparison of simulation with experiment showed the relatively good agreement of simulation for the degradation of circuits after irradiation.