Radiation effects on bipolar junction transistors induced by 25 MeV carbon ions

The characteristic degradation in silicon NPN bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) of 3DG112 type is examined under the irradiation with 25 MeV carbon (C) ions and various bias conditions. Different electrical parameters were measured in-situ during the exposure under each bias condition. From the experimental data, larger variation of base current (IB) is observed after irradiation at a given value of base-emitter voltage (VBE), while the collector current is only slightly affected by irradiation at a given VBE. The gain degradation is mostly affected by the behavior of the base current. The change in the reciprocal of current gain (Δ(1/β)) increases linearly with increasing the C ions fluence. The degradation of the NPN BJTs under various bias conditions during irradiation was studied. Compared to the case where the terminals are grounded, at a given fluence, the change in the reciprocal of current gain varies slightly less when the base-emitter junction is forward biased. On the other hand, there is no distinction for the change in the reciprocal of current gain between the case of reverse-biased base-emitter junction and that of all terminals grounded for the NPN BJTs at a given fluence.