Title :
Damage correlations in semiconductors exposed to gamma, electron and proton radiations
Author :
Summers, Geoffrey P. ; Burke, Edward A. ; Shapiro, Philip ; Messenger, Scott R. ; Walters, Robert J.
Author_Institution :
US Naval Res. Lab., Washington, DC, USA
fDate :
12/1/1993 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
The use of nonionizing energy loss (NIEL) in predicting the effect of gamma, electron, and proton irradiations on Si, GaAs, and InP devices is discussed. The NIEL for electrons and protons has been calculated from the displacement threshold to 200 MeV. Convoluting the electron NIEL with the slowed down Compton secondary electron spectrum gives an effective NIEL for CO60 gammas, enabling gamma-induced displacement damage to be correlated with particle results. The fluences of 1 MeV electrons equivalent to irradiation with 1 Mrad(Si) for Si, GaAs, and InP are given. Analytic proton NIEL calculations and results derived from the Monte Carlo TRIM agree exactly, as long as straggling is not significant. The NIEL calculations are compared with experimental proton and electron damage coefficients using solar cells as examples. A linear relationship is found between the NIEL and proton damage coefficients for Si, GaAs, and InP devices. For electrons, there appears to be a linear dependence for n-Si and n-GaAs, but for p-Si there is a quadratic relationship which decreases the damage coefficient at 1 MeV by a factor of ~10 below the value for n-Si
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; electron beam effects; elemental semiconductors; energy loss of particles; gallium arsenide; gamma-ray effects; indium compounds; proton effects; radiation hardening (electronics); semiconductor device models; silicon; 1 MeV; 1 Mrad; GaAs; III-V semiconductors; InP; Monte Carlo TRIM; Si; damage correlations; electron irradiation; elemental semiconductors; gamma irradiation; gamma-induced displacement damage; nonionizing energy loss; proton irradiations; semiconductor devices; slowed down Compton secondary electron spectrum; solar cells; space radiation environment; Electrons; Energy loss; Gallium arsenide; High temperature superconductors; Indium phosphide; Laboratories; Monte Carlo methods; Photovoltaic cells; Physics; Protons;
Journal_Title :
Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on