Proton Irradiation as a Screen for Displacement-Damage Sensitivity in Bipolar Junction Transistors

NPN and PNP bipolar junction transistors of varying sizes are irradiated with 4-MeV protons and 10-keV X-rays to determine the amount of ionization-related degradation caused by protons and calculate an improved estimate of displacement-related degradation due to protons. While different ratios of degradation produced by displacement damage and ionization effects will occur for different device technologies, this general approach, with suitable margin, can be used as a screen for sensitivity to neutron-induced displacement damage. Further calculations are performed to estimate the amount of degradation produced by 1-MeV equivalent neutron displacement damage compared to that produced by the displacement damage due to protons. The results are compared to previous work.