Outstanding Conference Paper Award 2008 IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference

This paper present the impact on hardness assurance testing and the enhanced degradation of proton and neutron of the semiconductor device. In this work, it is shown that protons and neutrons can induce enhanced degradation in both trench and planar geometry power MOSFETs. Specifically, large shifts in current-voltage characteristics of some devices were observed at extremely low proton total dose levels (as low as 2 rad(SiO₂)). These shifts induced significant increases (more than three orders of magnitude) in device "off" state leakage current. Neutron irradiations show similar degradation at equivalent fluence levels, even though neutrons do not deposit dose due to direct ionization. In addition, this increase in leakage current occurs at a much lower total dose level than expected based on ⁶⁰Co gamma ray data. These data therefore suggest that the mechanism responsible for the enhanced degradation is a microdose effect associated with secondary particles produced through nuclear interactions between protons and neutrons and the materials in integrated circuits. The secondary particles deposit enough charge in the gate oxide to induce a parasitic drain to source leakage path in the transistor. Although the results are demonstrated for only trench and planar geometry power MOSFETs, microdose effects can impact the radiation response of other integrated circuit types.