Investigation of a Pragmatic Technique for Preselecting Radiation Resistant Semiconductor Devices

A non-destructive method for selecting radiation resistant semiconducting devices has been investigated. The technique involves the controlled laboratory irradiation of devices, subsequent temperature annealing, and then use of the devices that are found to be most radiation resistant. Two series of radiation-annealing experiments were performed. In the first, the radiation damage caused by 6.6 × 1015 1 MeV electron/cm2 was annealed from the 1N645 silicon diodes. In the second series, radiation damage caused by 1.9 MeV electrons for similar integrated flux levels has been annealed from both 1N645 and 1N1563A diodes, and on re-irradiation the annealed devices have been as radiation resistant as the first time.