THE EFFECTS OF HEAVY CHARGED PARTICLE IRRADIATION OF MOSFET DEVICES

Abstract

lonizing cosmic particle radiation poses a serious threat to electronic devices (such as metal-oxide semiconductor, field effect transistors -- MOSFETs) that are used in outer space. The physical process in which a bombarding ion creates electron-hole pairs in the SiO2 layer of a MOSFET, the subsequent collection of charge at the SiO2-substrate interface and its effect on the operating characteristics of the transistor is modeled with two second order, coupled differential equations. The coupled equations are solved using the finite difference technique known as the Alternating Direction Implicit Method, ADI. Preliminary verification of the computer code was performed using a low energy proton accelerator. The measured change in MOSFET operating characteristics compared favorably with the predicted results. The results show that the damage due to ionizing particles is greatly dependent on the energy of the bombarding particle, its angle of incidence, and the magnitude of the bias applied to the MOSFET. [Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 119-130 (1988)]