State-of-the-Art Review: Hardness of MOS and Bipolar Integrated Circuits

The rapid changes which have been occurring in integrated circuit technologies in recent years have been accompanied by changes in the radiation hardness. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art hardness levels obtainable in silicon MOS and Bipolar technologies. Neutron hardness ranges from 3×1013 n/cm2 for I2 L to more than 1×1015 n/cm2 for ECL. Total dose hardness ranges from 700 Rads for unhardened NMOS to more than 1 Megarad for bipolar technologies. Transient upset levels for short radiation pulses range from 3×106 Rad (si)/sec for NMOS to 5×109 Rad (si)/sec for CMOS/SOS. Latchup can occur as low as 1.4 Rads for CMOS LSI, though it has been shown to be preventable in 4000 series CMOS by using neutron irradiation to reduce the carrier lifetime. Continued hardening R&D programs are necessary to retain or improve the hardness in future VLSI technologies.