Bulk and surface damages in complementary bipolar junction transistors produced by high dose irradiation

Two complementary types NPN and PNP of bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) were exposed to high dose of neutrons and gamma rays. The change in the base and collector currents, minority carriers lifetime, and current gain factor β with respect to the dose were analyzed. The contributions of the base current according to the defect types were also reported. It was declared that the radiation effect of neutrons was almost similar between the two transistor types, this effect at high dose may decrease the value of β to less than one. The Messenger-Spratt equation was used to describe the experimental results in this case. However, the experimental data demonstrated that the effect of gamma rays was generally higher on NPN than PNP transistors. This is mainly attributed to the difference in the behavior of the trapped positive charges in the SiO₂ layers. Meanwhile, this difference tends to be small for high gamma dose.