Rapid Annealing of Temperature-Compensated, Precision Voltage References Following Fast Neutron Irradiation

Substantial, short-term voltage variations have been observed during the rapid annealing of twin-junction, temperature-compensated, precision voltage references (TC PVRs) immediately following exposure to fast-neutron bursts of up to 4 × 1014 n/cm2. The short term recovery has been found to be dominated by minority carrier lifetime reduction in the forward biased junction of this composite junction device. The annealing response has been measured and found to be roughly independent of neutron fluence in the range from 1 - 4 × 1014 n/cm2.