The Effect of Neutrons on the Characteristics of the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT)

Author

Hefner, A.R. ; Blackburn, D.L. ; Galloway, K.F.

Author_Institution

Semiconductor Electronics Division, National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD 20899 and Electrical Engineering Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

Volume

33

Issue

6

fYear

1986

Firstpage

1428

Lastpage

1434

Abstract

The effects of neutrons on the operating characteristics of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT) are described. Experimental results are presented for devices that have been irradiated up to a fluence of 1013 neutrons/cm2, and an analytical model is presented which explains the observed effects. It is found that the on-state voltage increases, the switching time decreases, and the saturation current decreases with increasing neutron fluence. For the range of fluences studied, the observed effects result from a reduction in minority carrier lifetime in the IGBT and not from changes in the effective dopant density. The effects of neutrons on the IGBT are compared with the known effects on power MOSFETs, and it is shown that the IGBT characteristics begin to degrade at a fluence that is an order of magnitude less than the fluence at which the power MOSFET begins to degrade.

Keywords

Bipolar transistors; Charge carrier lifetime; Conductivity; Degradation; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Ionizing radiation; MOSFETs; Neutrons; Power semiconductor devices; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNS.1986.4334618

Filename

4334618