The Effects of X-Ray and Proton Irradiation on a 200 GHz/90 GHz Complementary (npn + pnp) SiGe:C HBT Technology

Author

Diestelhorst, Ryan M. ; Finn, Steven ; Jun, Bongim ; Sutton, Akil K. ; Cheng, Peng ; Marshall, Paul W. ; Cressler, John D. ; Schrimpf, Ronald D. ; Fleetwood, Daniel M. ; Gustat, Hans ; Heinemann, Bernd ; Fischer, Gerhard G. ; Knoll, Dieter ; Tillack, Bern

Author_Institution

Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta

Volume

54

Issue

6

fYear

2007

Firstpage

2190

Lastpage

2195

Abstract

We investigate the effects of both X-ray and proton irradiation on a novel 200 GHz/90 GHz (npn/pnp) complementary SiGe:C HBT technology. The DC forward mode total dose tolerance of the pnp HBTs is shown to exceed that of the npn HBTs by a significant margin after being subjected to both 63-MeV proton and 10-keV X-ray sources, while the AC characteristics of both devices exhibit no degradation up to X-ray doses as high as 1.8 Mrad(SiO₂). Pre- and post-irradiation results from a current feedback operational amplifier implemented in this technology and irradiated up to a dose of 1.8 Mrad(SiO₂) are presented, showing no degradation in performance metrics under two low current density bias configurations.

Keywords

Ge-Si alloys; X-ray effects; carbon; heterojunction bipolar transistors; proton effects; semiconductor materials; AC characteristics; DC forward mode total dose tolerance; HBT; SiGe:C; X-ray irradiation; complementary (npn + pnp) SiGe:C HBT technology; current density bias; current feedback operational amplifier; electron volt energy 10 keV; electron volt energy 63 MeV; frequency 200 GHz; frequency 90 GHz; heterojunction bipolar transistors; proton irradiation; radiation effects; silicon-germanium BiCMOS technology; BiCMOS integrated circuits; Consumer electronics; Degradation; Germanium silicon alloys; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Microelectronics; Operational amplifiers; Protons; Silicon germanium; Space technology; Complementary bipolar; SiGe HBT; heterojunction bipolar transistors; radiation effects; silicon-germanium;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNS.2007.907869

Filename

4395015