Radiation defects studies on silicon bipolar junction transistor irradiated by Br ions and electrons

Bipolar junction transistors are sensitive to both ionization and displacement damage due to charged particles from space radiation. Passivating oxides and the SiO₂/Si interface are more sensitive to ionization damage whereas displacement damage may strongly influence the bulk properties of a device. Fast electrons with energies below a few MeV introduces exclusively target ionization while heavy ions at moderate energies (lower than 2 MeV/amu) results in displacement damage due to individual Frenkel-pairs generation. Although both kinds of radiation are basically independent an effective correlation was seen in the electronic characteristics of transistors. We report on the effects on current gain and current-voltage characteristics of bipolar junction transistors due to successive irradiation with 20 MeV Br ions and 110 keV electrons.