Low Temperature Total Dose Irradiation of Transistors for Infrared Applications

Silicon transistor test vehicles used in infrared detectors were exposed to total dose at cryogenic temperatures. We present the degradation of the leakage current and threshold voltage of different transistor topologies at different dose rates and temperatures. The results show that the degradation occurs in the lateral parts of the transistors. Moreover, a different degradation was observed at 83 and 108 K. The higher temperature corresponds to the higher degradation; this can be explained by a more efficient hole transport process at these temperature. Measurements during the warming process of the devices show that a competition exists between the hole transport and their annealing, suggesting that a worst case of degradation could be found between nitrogen and room temperature.