Response of advanced bipolar processes to ionizing radiation

Author

Enlow, Edward W. ; Pease, Ronald L. ; Combs, William ; Schrimpf, Ron D. ; Nowlin, R. Nathan

Author_Institution

Mission Res. Corp., Albuquerque, NM, USA

Volume

38

Issue

6

fYear

1991

fDate

12/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1342

Lastpage

1351

Abstract

Ionizing radiation induced gain degradation in microcircuit bipolar polysilicon and crystalline emitter transistors is investigated. In this work, ⁶⁰Co irradiation testing was performed on bipolar test structures. The effects of collector bias, dose rate, and anneal temperature are discussed. Major differences in the radiation response of polysilicon emitter transistors are demonstrated as a function of dose rate. The worst-case gain degradation occurs at the lowest dose rate complicating hardness assurance testing procedures. The dose rate and anneal data suggest that MIL-STD-883B Test Method 1019.4 is non-conservative for polysilicon emitter transistors, which show enhanced radiation hardness over the crystalline emitter transistors

Keywords

bipolar integrated circuits; bipolar transistors; inspection; radiation effects; radiation hardening (electronics); semiconductor device testing; ⁶⁰Co irradiation testing; MIL-STD-883B Test Method 1019.4; advanced bipolar processes; anneal temperature; bipolar test structures; collector bias; crystalline emitter transistors; dose rate; enhanced radiation hardness; hardness assurance testing procedures; ionizing radiation; low dose rate testing; microcircuit bipolar polysilicon; polycrystalline Si; polysilicon emitter transistors; radiation response; worst-case gain degradation; Annealing; Bipolar transistors; Cranes; Crystallization; Degradation; Ionizing radiation; Performance evaluation; Temperature; Testing; Weapons;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.124115

Filename

124115