Title :
An Investigation of Dose Rate and Source Dependent Effects in 200 GHz SiGe HBTs
Author :
Sutton, Akil K. ; Prakash, A. P Gnana ; Jun, Bongim ; Zhao, Enhai ; Bellini, Marco ; Pellish, Jonathan ; Diestelhorst, Ryan M. ; Carts, Martin A. ; Phan, Anthony ; Ladbury, Ray ; Cressler, John D. ; Marshall, Paul W. ; Marshall, Cheryl J. ; Reed, Robert A
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA
Abstract :
We present an investigation of the observed variations in the total dose tolerance of the emitter-base spacer and shallow trench isolation oxides in a commercial 200 GHz SiGe HBT technology. Proton, gamma, and X-ray irradiations at varying dose rates are found to produce drastically different degradation signatures at the various oxide interfaces. Extraction and analysis of the radiation-induced excess base current, as well as low-frequency noise, are used to probe the underlying physical mechanisms. Two-dimensional calibrated device simulations are employed to correlate the observed results to the spatial distributions of carrier recombination in forward- and inverse-mode operation for both pre- and post-irradiation levels. Possible explanations of our observations are offered and the implications for hardness assurance testing are discussed
Keywords :
Ge-Si alloys; X-ray effects; dosimetry; gamma-ray effects; heterojunction bipolar transistors; proton effects; semiconductor device models; semiconductor device noise; semiconductor device testing; SiGe; X-ray irradiation; carrier recombination; dose rate; emitter-base spacer; forward-model operation; gamma irradiation; hardness assurance testing; inverse-mode operation; low-frequency noise; oxide interfaces; post-irradiation level; preirradiation level; proton irradiation; radiation-induced excess base current; silicon-germanium HBTs technology; source dependent effects; spatial distributions; total dose tolerance; two-dimensional calibrated device simulations; Degradation; Germanium silicon alloys; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Isolation technology; Low-frequency noise; Probes; Protons; Silicon germanium; Space technology; Testing; Dose enhancement; hardness assurance; hetero-junction bipolar transistor; low- frequency noise; silicon-germanium (SiGe); total ionizing dose;
Journal_Title :
Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TNS.2006.885382
