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The mechanisms occurring when the switched temperature technique is applied, as an accelerated enhanced low dose rate sensitivity (ELDRS) test technique, are investigated in terms of a specially designed gate-controlled lateral PNP transistor (GLPNP) that used to extract the interface traps (Nit) and oxide trapped charges (Not). Electrical characteristics in GLPNP transistors induced by 60Co gamma irradiation are measured in situ as a function of total dose, showing that generation of Nit in the oxide is the primary cause of base current variations for the GLPNP. Based on the analysis of the variations of Nit and Not, with switching the temperature, the properties of accelerated protons release and suppressed protons loss play critical roles in determining the increased Nit formation leading to the base current degradation with dose accumulation. Simultaneously the hydrogen cracking mechanisms responsible for additional protons release are related to the neutralization of Not extending enhanced Nit buildup. In this study the switched temperature irradiation has been employed to conservatively estimate the ELDRS of GLPNP, which provides us with a new insight into the test technique for ELDRS.
The enhanced low dose rate sensitivity (ELDRS) was first reported in 1991[1] on bipolar transistors (BJTs) and integrated circuits (ICs) that showed enhanced radiation-induced degradation when exposed to low dose rate (LDR), particularly at lateral and substrate PNP transistors.[2] Since then, various experimental research and theoretical models have been examined to explain ELDRS,[3–7] and it is most widely accepted that both interface traps (Nit) and oxide trapped charges (Not) would contribute to degrade the performance of devices. The physical mechanisms in BJTs responsible for base current degradation are related to the changes in surface recombination caused by the buildup of Nit and spreading of depletion layer or electrons injection into the emitter induced by the formation of Not. The two-stage hydrogen model incorporates hydrogen release mechanisms as well as the Nit formation due to hydrogen depassivation of Si–H bonds near the interface as proposed by McLean et al.[8] After exposure to ionizing radiation, excess hydrogen released in devices would be trapped in the oxide with affecting the densities of Not.[9] Additionally, hydrogen molecules cracking at oxide trapped charges, releasing hydrogen to enhance Nit buildup, are included in the theoretical calculation.[7] Simultaneously the annealing of Nit is controlled by the passivation of interfacial defects by hydrogen molecules.[5] This has made it difficult to identify the process in terms of Nit and Not formation, since the distribution of Nit and Not varies with the irradiation conditions, such as dose rate, bias, and irradiation temperature.
On the other hand, due to the presence of ELDRS, the testing at a high dose rate is not feasible, since the experiments with high dose rate do not provide the upper bound of the LDR response of devices. However, testing with LDR is an extremely time-consuming and expensive task. For example, it will take about 4 months to accumulate 100 krad(Si) when performing at typical LDR (0.01 rad(Si)/s) experiment. So, several accelerated test techniques have been attempted to evaluate ELDRS, such as (i) elevated temperature irradiation (ETI),[3,10] (ii) irradiation with molecular hydrogen,[6,11] (iii) the switched dose rate technique,[12,13] and (iv) the switched temperature irradiation.[14–16] Among them, switched temperature technique, proposed by Lu et al.[14] as a promising and applicable accelerated ELDRS test method, has been demonstrated on a series of bipolar devices by experimental verification. Unfortunately, there was no further exploration on how the Nit and Not affect the devices damage during temperature irradiation and the mechanisms behind this technique. Therefore, understanding the mechanism at play when the switched temperature irradiation applied is important and necessary to develop and popularize this accelerated total dose hardness assurance test intended for space missions.
In this work, special structures, gated lateral PNP transistors (GLPNP), have been designed to investigate the total dose induced changes in Not and Nit under different irradiation conditions. The physical mechanisms behind the switched temperature irradiation have been established on the basis of the characterization of Nit and Not. Additionally, the experimental results have emphasized the importance of the radiation-induced species mutual transformation in understating the ionizing radiation effects.
The gate-controlled lateral PNP transistors tested in this work were fabricated by the State Key Laboratory of Analog Integrated Circuit, China. Those devices have an independent gate electrode which covers the active base region of the PNP transistor, controlling the potential of the interface independently. The cross section and technical parameters of the GLPNP are illustrated in Fig.
The experiments were carried out on the gamma source in the Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. All of the transistors examined in this work were exposed to the total dose of 100 krad(Si) with all pins shorted during the irradiation. The dose rate used for elevated temperature was 5.8 rad(Si)/s and the low dose rate was 0.01 rad(Si)/s. After irradiation, besides Gummel curve measurement, the gate sweep (GS) characteristics and sub-threshold sweep (SS) characteristics were tested using a KEITHLEY 4200SCS parameter analyzer. In the Gummel curve measurement, base–emitter voltage was swept from 0 to −1 V, fixing the gate floated and VBC = 0 V. In the GS test, the gate voltage was swept from −40 V to 10 V at VBE = 0.5 V. In the SS test, the gate voltage was swept from −50 V to −10 V at VBE = 0.5 V.
The elevated temperature irradiations, consisting of fixed temperature irradiation and switched temperature irradiation, were performed in a special heating system with a precision of ±2 °C. As for fixed temperature irradiation, the devices were irradiated at a constant temperature ranging from 120 °C to 80 °C over the range of dose accumulated. According to previous works,[14–16] for switched temperature irradiation the test procedure was that the samples were first exposed to 20 krad(Si) at 120 °C, then to 80 krad(Si) at 100 °C, and finally to the total dose of 100 krad(Si) at 80 °C, as shown in Fig.
As for most bipolar devices, excess base current (
Figures
It is known that,[17] after exposure to ionizing radiation, Not and Nit have impacts on the surface potential and recombination velocity, resulting in the changes in the base current for bipolar transistors. With the knowledge of the literature and our previous work,[18–21] the Not and Nit could be extracted by applying GS and SS separation technique. Unlike the existence of the clear base current peak as shown in Fig.
The radiation-induced Nit and Not are extracted from GS and SS results in Fig.
Different from Nit, the changes in Not in Fig.
For all the GLPNP testing, the experimental results of Figs.
Based on the experimental results of Fig.
For fixed temperature in Fig.
In addition, the obvious differences with respect to the variation of Nit observed at switched temperature and fixed temperature suggest that decreased temperature can extend the liberation of proton with the dose accumulation. In order to understand this additional proton release, two factors would be considered. On one hand, owing to the hydrogen dimerization strongly dependent on temperature near the interface, the decrease in temperature will contribute to weakening the reaction rate and dropping of the more protons loss in Eq. (
When comparing the room temperature irradiation (at dose rate of 5.8 rad(Si)/s and 0.01 rad(Si)/s) in Fig.
On the other hand, as described in section
The analysis of the variations of Nit and Not suggests that the primary mechanisms for temperature switching irradiation as an ELDRS test technique are the accelerated liberation of protons and formation of Nit, which are key mechanisms in ELDRS.[22] Firstly, bipolar devices demonstrate sensitivity to temperature irradiation,[27] and a higher temperature (above 100 °C) accelerates the protons release to form Nit, resulting in enhanced degradation at a low dose level. Further, the increased Not also acts as an agent for Nit buildup, by the hydrogen cracking mechanism to release additional protons. Secondly, the temperature was switched from higher to moderate (100 °C) for the purpose of suppressing the hydrogen dimerization reaction at the medium dose level. This is because the decreased temperature can effectively suppress the hydrogen dimerization but proton release does not.[24] Thirdly, noting that the annealing effect will affect the device degradation, the further reduction in irradiation temperature (below 100 °C) is applied, restraining the annealing of Nit at high dose level because the barrier for this reaction is high, which is about 1.3 eV.[5] Therefore, for switched temperature irradiation the Nit and Not at the first higher temperature bring some positive influences on the evolution of Nit at subsequent low temperatures compared to fixed temperature irradiation.
In this work, the gated-controlled lateral PNP transistor has been performed to characterize the distribution of Not and Nit under low dose rate and elevated temperature irradiation. The results from the experiments are shown as follows. (i) The increase in base current of GLPNP is a result of Nit and Not changes, and Nit plays a more dominant role. (ii) Besides acceleration in protons release and diffusivity, elevated temperature also affects the occurrence of hydrogen dimerization, resulting in an unexpected loss in interface traps corresponding to the excess base current recovery. (iii) The additional changes in Nit are obtained for the parts exposed to switched temperature, since the reduction in temperature will suppress the hydrogen dimerization associated with protons loss. (iv) The oxide defects are not only dominant hole traps but also act as agent for interface formation. More importantly, Not would be neutralized by hydrogen molecules, inducing the increase of Nit because of the additional protons released in Eq. (
The results of this work have revealed why such switched temperature irradiation could enable estimation of LDR response for the bipolar transistor sensitive to ELDRS. This is because of accelerated liberation of protons and suppressive protons loss at switched temperature responsible for increased Nit. Meanwhile, converted hydrogen molecules cracking mechanisms at the Not site result in additional proton release, extending the enhanced degradation. Hence, it is applicable to evaluate the risk of failure of bipolar devices at low dose rate, and extensive research considering optimal conditions (dose rate, temperature, and dose level) is necessary for further investigation.
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