Method of simulation of low dose rate for total dose effect in 0.18 μm CMOS technology

Three methods for simulating low dose rate irradiation are presented and experimentally verified by using 0.18 μm CMOS transistors.The results show that it is the best way to use a series of high dose rate irradiations, with 100 °C annealing steps in-between irradiation steps, to simulate a continuous low dose rate irradiation.This approach can reduce the low dose rate testing time by as much as a factor of 45 with respect to the actual 0.5 rad（Si）/s dose rate irradiation.The procedure also provides detailed information on the behavior of the test devices in a low dose rate environment.

Machine learning-based analyses for total ionizing dose effects in bipolar junction transistors

Machine learning methods have proven to be powerful in various research fields.In this paper,we show that research on radiation effects could benefit from such methods and present a machine learning-based scientific discovery approach.The total ionizing dose(TID)effects usually cause gain degradation of bipolar junction transistors(BJTs),leading to functional failures of bipolar integrated circuits.Currently,many experiments of TID effects on BJTs have been conducted at different laboratories worldwide,producing a large amount of experimental data which provides a wealth of information.However,it is difficult to utilize these data effectively.In this study,we proposed a new artificial neural network(ANN)approach to analyze the experimental data of TID effects on BJTs An ANN model was built and trained using data collected from different experiments.The results indicate that the proposed ANN model has advantages in capturing nonlinear correlations and predicting the data.The trained ANN model suggests that the TID hardness of a BJT tends to increase with base current I.A possible cause for this finding was analyzed and confirmed through irradiation experiments.

Suppressing the hot carrier injection degradation rate in total ionizing dose effect hardened nMOSFETs

Annular gate nMOSFETs are frequently used in spaceborne integrated circuits due to their intrinsic good capability of resisting total ionizing dose （TID） effect. However, their capability of resisting the hot carrier effect （HCE） has also been proven to be very weak. In this paper, the reason why the annular gate nMOSFETs have good TID but bad HCE resistance is discussed in detail, and an improved design to locate the source contacts only along one side of the annular gate is used to weaken the HCE degradation. The good TID and HCE hardened capability of the design are verified by the experiments for I/O and core nMOSFETs in a 0.18 μm bulk CMOS technology. In addition, the shortcoming of this design is also discussed and the TID and the HCE characteristics of the replacers （the annular source nMOSFETs） are also studied to provide a possible alternative for the designers.

Hot-Carrier Effects on Total Dose Irradiated 65 nm n-Type Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors

The influence of total dose irradiation on hot-carrier reliability of 65 nm n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field- effect transistors （nMOSFETs） is investigated. Experimental results show that hot-carrier degradations on ir- radiated narrow channel nMOSFETs are greater than those without irradiation. The reason is attributed to radiation-induced charge trapping in shallow trench isolation （STI）. The electric field in the pinch-off region of the nMOSFET is enhanced by radiation-induced charge trapping in STI, resulting in a more severe hot-carrier effect.

Total Ionization Dose Effects on Charge Storage Capability of Al2O3/HfO2/Al2O3-Based Charge Trapping Memory Cell

Because of the discrete charge storage mechanism, charge trapping memory（CTM） technique is a good candidate for aerospace and military missions. The total ionization dose（TID） effects on CTM cells with Al2O3/HfO2/Al2O3（AHA） high-k gate stack structure under in-situ 10 keV x-rays are studied. The C-V characteristics at different radiation doses demonstrate that charge stored in the device continues to be leaked away during the irradiation,thereby inducing the shift of flat band voltage（V（fb））. The dc memory window shows insignificant changes, suggesting the existence of good P/E ability. Furthermore, the physical mechanisms of TID induced radiation damages in AHA-based CTM are analyzed.

Research on total-dose irradiation effect of hardened partially-depleted NMOSFET/SIMOX

In this work, top and back gate characteristics of partially-depleted NMOS transistors with enclosed gate fabricated on SIMOX which is hardened by silicon ions implantation were studied under X-ray total-dose irradiation of three bias conditions. It has been found experimentally that back gate threshold shift and leakage current were greatly reduced during irradiation for hardened transistors, comparing to control ones. It has been confirmed that the improvement of total-dose properties of SOI devices is attributed to the silicon nanocrystals (nanoclusters) in buried oxides introduced by ion implantation.

Study of total ionizing dose radiation effects on enclosed gate transistors in a commercial CMOS technology

This paper studies the total ionizing dose radiation effects on MOS （metal-oxide-semiconductor） transistors with normal and enclosed gate layout in a standard commercial CMOS （compensate MOS） bulk process. The leakage current, threshold voltage shift, and transconductance of the devices were monitored before and after γ-ray irradiation. The parameters of the devices with different layout under different bias condition during irradiation at different total dose are investigated. The results show that the enclosed layout not only effectively eliminates the leakage but also improves the performance of threshold voltage and transconductance for NMOS （n-type channel MOS） transistors. The experimental results also indicate that analogue bias during irradiation is the worst case for enclosed gate NMOS. There is no evident different behaviour observed between normal PMOS （p-type channel MOS） transistors and enclosed gate PMOS transistors.

Synergistic effect of total ionizing dose on single event effect induced by pulsed laser microbeam on SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor

The synergistic effect of total ionizing dose（TID） on single event effect（SEE） in SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor（HBT） is investigated in a series of experiments. The SiGe HBTs after being exposed to 60 Co g irradiation are struck by pulsed laser to simulate SEE. The SEE transient currents and collected charges of the un-irradiated device are compared with those of the devices which are irradiated at high and low dose rate with various biases. The results show that the SEE damage to un-irradiated device is more serious than that to irradiated SiGe HBT at a low applied voltage of laser test. In addition, the g irradiations at forward and all-grounded bias have an obvious influence on SEE in the SiGe HBT, but the synergistic effect after cutting off the g irradiation is not significant. The influence of positive oxide-trap charges induced by TID on the distortion of electric field in SEE is the major factor of the synergistic effect. Moreover, the recombination of interface traps also plays a role in charge collection.

Total Ionizing Dose Radiation Effects in the P-Type Polycrystalline Silicon Thin Film Transistors

The total ionizing dose radiation effects in the polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors are studied. Transfer characteristics, high-frequency capacitance-voltage curves and low-frequency noises (LFN) are measured before and after radiation. The experimental results show that threshold voltage and hole-field-effect mobility decrease, while sub-threshold swing and low-frequency noise increase with the increase of the total dose. The contributions of radiation induced interface states and oxide trapped charges to the shift of threshold voltage are also estimated. Furthermore, spatial distributions of oxide trapped charges before and after radiation are extracted based on the LFN measurements.

Total Indicative Dose Determination in Water from the North Riviera Well Field of SODECI in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

The Uranium-238 (238U), Thorium-232 (232Th) families and Potassium-40 (40K) are of terrestrial origin and contribute generally to an individual’s external exposure through our presence in this environment. They also contribute to the internal exposure through the ingestion of products and beverages such as water that are close to the earth. The aim of this work is to determine the committed effective dose or Total Indicative Dose (TID) due to gamma radioactivity of the borehole water from the Nord Riviera (NR) well field operated by the Côte d’Ivoire Water Distribution Company (SODECI) for the supply of drinking water to part of the population of Abidjan. In addition, the populations, with their habits, could use these borehole waters directly as drinking water. To this end, water samples from the seven (07) functional boreholes were collected and analyzed on a gamma spectrometry chain, equipped with an HPGe detector in the laboratory of the Radiation Protection Institute (RPI) of the GHANA Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC). The results of the specific activities of 238U, 232Th and 40K obtained were transcribed into TID. As the natural radioactivity of the borehole water is high [1], the TIDs calculated from the activity results of the natural radionuclides238U, 232Th, and 40K vary for the seven boreholes from 0.150 to 0.166 mSv/yr with an average of 0.161 ± 0.034 mSv/yr. The TID of the control tower, where the borehole water is mixed and treated for household use, is equal to 0.136 ± 0.03 mSv/yr. The TIDs obtained are therefore all slightly greater than the WHO reference dose value of 0.1 mSv/yr. But all remain below the UNSCEAR reference dose of 0.29 mSv/yr.

Influences of total ionizing dose on single event effect sensitivity in floating gate cells

The influences of total ionizing dose （TID） on the single event effect （SEE） sensitivity of 34-nm and 25-nm NAND flash memories are investigated in this paper. The increase in the cross section of heavy-ion single event upset （SEU） in memories that have ever been exposed to TID is observed, which is attributed to the combination of the threshold voltage shifts induced by 7-rays and heavy ions. Retention errors in floating gate （FG） cells after heavy ion irradiation are observed. Moreover, the cross section of retention error increases if the memory has ever been exposed to TID. This effect is more evident at a low linear energy transfer （LET） value. The underlying mechanism is identified as the combination of the defects induced by 7-rays and heavy ions, which increases the possibility to constitute a multi-trap assisted tunneling （m- TAT） path across the tunnel oxide.

Synergistic effects of total ionizing dose on single event upset sensitivity in static random access memory under proton irradiation

Synergistic effects of the total ionizing dose （TID） on the single event upset （SEU） sensitivity in static random access memories （SRAMs） were studied by using protons. The total dose was cumulated with high flux protons during the TID exposure, and the SEU cross section was tested with low flux protons at several cumulated dose steps. Because of the radiation-induced off-state leakage current increase of the CMOS transistors, the noise margin became asymmetric and the memory imprint effect was observed.

Influence of characteristics' measurement sequence on total ionizing dose effect in PDSOI nMOSFET

The influence of characteristics’ measurement sequence on total ionizing dose effect in partially-depleted SOI nMOSFET is comprehensively studied. We find that measuring the front-gate curves has no influence on total ionizing dose effect.However, the back-gate curves’ measurement has a great influence on total ionizing dose effect due to high electric field in the buried oxide during measuring. In this paper, we analyze their mechanisms and we find that there are three kinds of electrons tunneling mechanisms at the bottom corner of the shallow trench isolation and in the buried oxide during the backgate curves’ measurement, which are: Fowler–Nordheim tunneling, trap-assisted tunneling, and charge-assisted tunneling.The tunneling electrons neutralize the radiation-induced positive trapped charges, which weakens the total ionizing dose effect. As the total ionizing dose level increases, the charge-assisted tunneling is enhanced by the radiation-induced positive trapped charges. Hence, the influence of the back-gate curves’ measurement is enhanced as the total ionizing dose level increases. Different irradiation biases are compared with each other. An appropriate measurement sequence and voltage bias are proposed to eliminate the influence of measurement.

Total ionizing dose effect in an input/output device for flash memory

Input/output devices for flash memory are exposed to gamma ray irradiation. Total ionizing dose has been shown great influence on characteristic degradation of transistors with different sizes. In this paper, we observed a larger increase of off-state leakage in the short channel device than in long one. However, a larger threshold voltage shift is observed for the narrow width device than for the wide one, which is well known as the radiation induced narrow channel effect. The radiation induced charge in the shallow trench isolation oxide influences the electric field of the narrow channel device. Also, the drain bias dependence of the off-state leakage after irradiation is observed, which is called the radiation enhanced drain induced barrier lowing effect. Finally, we found that substrate bias voltage can suppress the off-state leakage, while leading to more obvious hump effect.

Improvement of total-dose irradiation hardness of silicon-on-insulator materials by modifying the buried oxide layer with ion implantation

The hardening of the buried oxide （BOX） layer of separation by implanted oxygen （SIMOX） silicon-on-insulator （SOI） wafers against total-dose irradiation was investigated by implanting ions into the BOX layers. The tolerance to total-dose irradiation of the BOX layers was characterized by the comparison of the transfer characteristics of SOI NMOS transistors before and after irradiation to a total dose of 2.7 Mrad（SiO2）. The experimental results show that the implantation of silicon ions into the BOX layer can improve the tolerance of the BOX layers to total-dose irradiation. The investigation of the mechanism of the improvement suggests that the deep electron traps introduced by silicon implantation play an important role in the remarkable improvement in radiation hardness of SIMOX SOI wafers.

集成电路和功率器件抗辐射工艺加固技术研究综述

随着我国空间装备的高速发展,尤其是深空探测器,微电子器件抗辐射性能得到广泛关注。抗辐射工艺加固是实现器件抗辐射性能提升的重要途径之一。本文围绕空间总剂量效应和单粒子效应,对近年来集成电路和功率器件辐射效应机理和工艺加固技术的研究进展进行了介绍和总结,为抗辐射工艺加固技术的发展与应用提供了有益参考。

基于PXI标准的功率器件总剂量效应测试系统研制

设计了一款针对功率器件的总剂量效应测试系统。该系统基于外围组件互连(PXI)扩展主机系统,设计了测试板卡,并通过设计不同工艺的半导体功率器件测试工装,实现功率器件的批量自动化测试。结果表明,氮化镓工艺的功率器件的耐总剂量效应优于硅和碳化硅工艺的功率器件的。

SOI高压LDMOS器件氧化层抗总电离剂量辐射效应研究

绝缘体上硅(SOI)高压横向扩散金属氧化物半导体(LDMOS)器件是高压集成电路的核心器件,对其进行了总电离剂量(TID)辐射效应研究。利用仿真软件研究了器件栅氧化层、场氧化层和埋氧化层辐射陷阱电荷对电场和载流子分布的调制作用,栅氧化层辐射陷阱电荷主要作用于器件沟道区,而场氧化层和埋氧化层辐射陷阱电荷则主要作用于器件漂移区;辐射陷阱电荷在器件内部感生出的镜像电荷改变了器件原有的电场和载流子分布,从而导致器件阈值电压、击穿电压和导通电阻等参数的退化。对80 V SOI高压LDMOS器件进行了总电离剂量辐射实验,结果表明在ON态和OFF态下随着辐射剂量的增加器件性能逐步衰退,当累积辐射剂量为200 krad(Si)时,器件的击穿电压大于80 V,阈值电压漂移为0.3 V,器件抗总电离剂量辐射能力大于200 krad(Si)。

H型栅NMOS器件Kink效应的研究

H型栅NMOS器件因其强抗辐照和低功耗等优势已逐渐成为PDSOI电路设计中的核心器件。但H型栅NMOS器件的Ids-Vds曲线会在漏极电压较高时发生明显的翘曲现象,称为Kink效应。该效应严重影响一定工作条件下的电路性能和稳定性。为此,依据实测和TCAD仿真数据,分析了H型栅NMOS器件发生Kink效应的机理,并且基于0.15μm SOI工艺,进一步量化分析了顶层硅膜厚度、阱浓度、栅尺寸、温度以及总剂量辐照等方面对Kink效应的影响。最终结果表明,高漏极电压下NMOS器件体区积累大量空穴导致寄生NPN三极管开启,从而引发了Kink效应。本工作完善了H型栅NMOS器件Kink效应的研究,为PDSOI电路设计中抑制Kink效应提供了有益的参考。

面向空间应用的GaN功率器件及其辐射效应

研究氮化镓(GaN)功率器件及其辐射效应对于解决空间应用需求、促进新一代航天器建设具有重大意义。介绍了GaN功率器件的主要结构及工作原理,综述了近年来国内外在GaN功率器件的总剂量效应和单粒子效应两方面的研究进展,并对辐射效应在GaN功率器件中造成的退化和损伤机制进行分析与讨论。研究结果显示:GaN功率器件具有较强的抗总剂量能力,但是抗单粒子能力较弱,易发生漏电和单粒子烧毁,且烧毁点多发生在栅极边缘的漏侧。对GaN功率器件辐照损伤机理的研究缺乏权威理论,有待进一步探索,为其空间应用提供理论支撑。目前,平面结构的GaN功率器件是主流的技术方案,单片集成及高频小型化是GaN功率器件未来发展的方向。